Jiggery-Pokery
by friendlyquark
Summary: Sequel to 'Once More, Into the Breach'. Ten2, Rose, Romana, Susan, Koschei, and the rest of the Pete's World crew, are discovering that rebuilding a civilization is harder than it looks. Between contractors, labor unions, pregnancy, and alien invasions, they discover that, as usual, no plan survives first contact with the Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one – Tying up Loose Ends

The day they formally wed it dawned cold and clear. A crisp wind coming down from the North fluttered the scarlet and orange silk of her dress and billowed the red velvet of his robe. Her grandfather performed the Binding, holding the golden ribbon in his hands, while her parents stood to one side, ready to give consent.

Wilf and Donna were sitting, baffled, but happy, on the bride's side of the aisle, and the rest of the attendees were a mixture of Time Lords and humans, Torchwood, UNIT officers and soldiers, and the Tylers, who had pointedly sat on Koschei's side of the aisle, when they saw how only Darginian, of all the Time Lords, was sitting on his side.

"I consent and give," her mother asserted and no one watching would have guessed how much coaxing, shouting, and outright blackmail had been used to get her to say those words.

I consent and give," her father agreed and Susan could hear the sourness underneath, but Grandfather's stern eye was on him, so he dared say nothing more. Not that she cared. Nothing could ruin this day for her.

"Two hundred years and well worth it," Koschei whispered and then kissed her and she returned the kiss and the sentiment both.

When they broke apart, the room cheered and they both grinned at each other, feeling like children at a Winter Tide Festival.

He extended his arm and she took it, leaning against him, eyes half closed in pure happiness.

"Finally," she murmured and he grinned down at her.

"Come on, the smell of all that food is killing me," he teased and she nudged him with her elbow.

"Glutton," she laughed.

"Harridan," he murmured and the word had never sounded so seductive.

"Later," she promised and he laughed aloud.

* * *

The Doctor was sitting out the dancing tonight. Rose's pregnant belly was too large for them to dance together without comedy ensuing, so they sat instead, arms around each other, watching Susan and Koschei swaying together, seemingly oblivious to the existence of anyone else in all the world.

"Well, that was long overdue," Darginian commented, as he dropped into a chair beside them.

"Oh yes," the Doctor agreed with a sigh.

"But they'll be okay, now?" Rose asked, her brow furrowed in concern.

"Well, as long as Koschei over there doesn't do anything too stupid, should be fine," the Doctor assured them. Darginian looked at Rose and she stared back at him, both looking very nervous.

"Right, you keep on him, Dar, and I'll take her," Rose informed him and he nodded.

"Why do you have to watch Susan? She's the clever one," the Doctor protested.

"Rose's job will be to keep Susan from stabbing my friend over there, before _ I_ can hit him over the head and make him see sense," Darginian explained and the Doctor nodded.

"Well, yeah, good thinking, that!" he praised them and they grinned at each other.

* * *

Wife. Koschei rolled the word around in his mind and tried not to think of Lucy. He was so happy just then, more than he'd been in many long centuries and he wanted to enjoy it. It helped that the ceremony was very much traditional Gallifreyan, with no Earth touches to it. They were both Time Lords, which made it much easier.

The reception was something that Donna Noble and Jackie Tyler had arranged between them. He glanced over towards where the two most powerful women in the universe were conversing together, no doubt planning ways to conquer the rest of the galaxy. Donna had been hired as Jackie's personal secretary, which was a polite fiction that served to keep anyone from noticing that they were now an unstoppable force, and the combination of those two personalities was likely to prove overwhelming.

He certainly couldn't have stopped them from throwing this party, so he hadn't tried. But, it still was far too close to what Lady Cole had arranged for his wedding to Lucy and it hurt.

"I had a wedding before too, you know," Susan murmured to him and he looked into her eyes and saw the wistful melancholy that underlay her joy as well and he leaned down to capture her lips again.

"You may feel free to call me 'thick' now," he joked and she shook her head.

"It's perfectly normal to feel this way," she assured him. "After everything we've gone through, of course it doesn't feel real to us yet."

"I love you," he whispered and she melted into his arms, her hearts opening to him like flowers to the sun. This was real, this was all that mattered.

"Love you too," she whispered back and he fell apart at the fervent truth of her. Holding her against him, he moved softly to a song that he barely heard, his mind tuned to far greater music, the harmony that flowed between them.

This was good. He liked this. This could stay this way.

* * *

"Koschei!" the Doctor was yelling. "Pass me those cables!" Alarms were blaring, people were shouting and running and he was working as fast as he could, sweat pouring down his face.

"They're a bit tangled!" he shouted back and kept working feverishly.

"We've only got ten minutes before the reactor goes critical!" the Doctor retorted.

"I'm well aware of that! The bloody computer keeps counting it down!"

"Nine minutes until Main Reactor reaches Critical condition, please evacuate the area," the Computer announced, sounding far too calm and reasonable for Koschei's peace of mind.

"Nine minutes now!" the Doctor hollered and Koschei seriously considered chucking him into the reactor and just running.

"Not helping!" he shot back.

* * *

Susan stepped aside as Tony raced by her, laughing and chasing a shobogan. A small grey one with blue eyes was clinging to his shoulder, chattering in excitement, apparently urging him on to mayhem, and the five-year-old's legs were pumping madly, as he tried to catch a silvery white one with green eyes.

"No running inside, Tony!" she called after him, but her eyes were merry and her voice mild, so he just grinned, slowed down to a jog for a few steps, before speeding up again and darting off after the little cat-lemur.

She laughed and stepped into her lab with a light heart. It was a large space, airy and with huge curving windows that let in sunlight. She polarized the windows with a touch, dimming the lights, and went to the bank of artificial wombs that lined all of one wall.

Dr. Arthur Davis, who had night duty, glanced up at her and waved and she smiled back at the wiry, wizened old man with his basset hound face and warm brown eyes.

"It was a quiet night," he informed her with a yawn and a stretch. "I played a little Chopin for them at around two AM and got some wiggling from Eddy," he chuckled. "I think that one is going to be a real music lover."

"I hope so, he's cloned from one of our greatest musical geniuses, but even so, genetics is not an exact science." She shrugged. "You can never be one hundred percent sure what you'll get. Whatever he becomes though, he's going to get a lot of love," she sighed happily. Parents had been chosen for each of the kids and they had given them names, came to visit every day, and were busy bonding with their infants. Eddy's parents had been particularly diligent and affectionate. They'd lost their only son in the Cyber invasion and had been the first volunteers for the fostering program.

She moved over to the wall of artificial wombs and smiled. The Gallifreyans had called them 'buckets', but her human lab assistants had nicknamed them 'fishbowls' and she had to agree that their moniker was probably more apt. The babies were nearly eight months along in their development and she was very pleased with their progress.

She stopped and checked each womb, reading temperature, nutrient balance, waste disposal, making sure the sound generators, which replicated the noises they would have heard in a real womb, were functioning properly. She adjusted chemicals, added a touch of serotonin to one, a dash of testosterone to another, and a bit more estrogen to a third. Once she was satisfied that everything was at it should be, she flipped the switch that made the fish bowls transparent, so she could visually check them.

The dim light revealed twelve infants, still too small and underdeveloped to survive outside the womb, but growing perfectly. She smiled at tiny toes and fingers, murmured softly to them, and then made the wombs partially opaque again, before letting the sunlight pour back into the room.

The babies could hear them all as they puttered around the lab and she liked to think they found it soothing. It was hard to tell yet, as the babies' telepathic abilities were still quite rudimentary.

"Looks good, Dr. Davis, you're a blessing, I must say," she told him and he shook his head in amusement.

"Come on, Torchwood shows up and asks me if I want to learn advanced alien medical techniques and the only caveat is that I live on an alien world for a year? This is the blessing! With what I've learned from you in the last eight months alone, I could start synthesizing retroviruses that could cure a whole host of genetic disorders and could revolutionize gene therapy!" he chortled and she grinned at him.

"I know you'll do amazing work, Arthur. I can't wait to see how you apply the technology!" she told him, feeling his excitement herself. She had long wanted to do more than give a few drugs to a few humans, or nudge just a tiny bit, there were so many sick and dying people who could really benefit from her people's knowledge.

"Well, I'm going to have to be careful, you know, Susan, some of this stuff could be used by unscrupulous folks to do some real damage," he warned her and she nodded. Even her people, who were a million years more advanced than his, had misused some of that knowledge and the consequences had been terrible.

"I know. Look the protests over the modified drought resistant crops that we developed were a lesson to me too," she conceded. Even though her people's technology was far more advanced, the mistakes the humans had made in their own modifications had left a lot of humans deeply suspicious of anything that smacked of 'tampering with nature'. She could understand their fears, even if she was frustrated by her inability to move quickly to alleviate suffering and starvation.

"It may take a long time, Susan, but in time, the things that we develop here together will change the world, both worlds," he assured her and she nodded. She had learned patience over the centuries, but that didn't mean she liked it much.

* * *

Rose put her feet up and cursed Time Lord biology again. Eleven months! God, but this baby thing was hard on a woman's back! She looked out the window at the mountain that fell away from their home and the huge orange sky that arched above them and sighed. The Doctor was rebuilding the family home on the side of the mountain and, while it was an utterly beautiful view, the Trans Mat trip back and forth to the Capital was no fun when she was already nauseated and felt like a slow moving blimp.

Then, of course, there was the fact that half the house wasn't even built yet. The nano-assemblers were working overtime, but she still kept trying to open doors that didn't go anywhere yet. It was bloody annoying.

"How you doing?" Donna asked solicitously and set a mug of hot tea by her elbow. Rose smiled up at her gratefully and cuddled the cup against her.

"Blimey, I do really wish babies didn't take it out of you like this!" she grumbled. "I'm big as a whale, my back hurts, and if I were still human, I'd already be done with this! But, I've still got another two months of this!"

"You could have put her in a fish bowl," Donna reminded her with a saucy grin.

"Naw, I want a baby, not a science experiment," she retorted with a sigh. "She'll be worth it in the end, I know that, it's just so ruddy uncomfortable."

"Where's the Doctor?"

"Oh, Torchwood was having a problem at some nuclear reactor, something about alien parasites in the wiring or some such," she told her with a shrug.

"That sounds dangerous!" Donna exclaimed.

"Naw, knowing him, he's having loads of fun without me," she complained, arms crossed atop her belly and eyebrows drawn down in a frown.

"Aren't you worried though?" she asked with a puzzled expression.

"He took Koschei with him and a full Torchwood response team, what could possibly go wrong."

* * *

"Eight minutes until Main Reactor reaches Critical condition, please evacuate the area," the computer informed them in that same cheerful voice.

"Shay! We're running out of time!" the Doctor hollered, his voice rising on the last word.

"Why don't you try wrestling this pile of snakes over here, then!" he shouted back and then, with a sudden jerk that sent him sprawling, he was finally able to pull the cable free. He dragged it over to the Doctor, who was rewiring the main circuit board, and handed it to him.

"Seven minutes until Main Reactor reaches Critical condition, please evacuate the area," the computer cooed at them and Koschei was learning to hate the sound of that voice.

Together they wrestled the cable into place and began working at restoring the coolant levels in the reactor core. Frantically running back and forth, flipping levers and stabilizing the shutdown took another nerve wracking minute and half.

"Main reactor is now stable, all systems normal, have a nice day," the computer announced and Koschei stared at it with a foul temper and a laser screwdriver.

"You, my friend, need a little re-programming," he growled.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Labor Trouble

"Could you say that again," the Doctor requested, his brain stuttering as he tried to grasp a problem more difficult than seven-dimensional physics.

"The Construction Workers Union claims that working on an alien planet constitutes an extra-long commute, by their rules. Also the difference in time zones is considered working 'off hours', and might be 'time and a half', depending on the time zone that the worker comes from. The Trades Union Congress has called a closed door meeting to discuss the issues of working here, while living on Earth, versus those who work here and also live on Gallifrey," Pete rattled off and the Doctor just blinked at him in confusion. "The Contractors are also demanding to see the plans for stage two, before they start on stage one, they are concerned that the HVAC might not be compatible, if it isn't all done in one go.

"Isn't this supposed to be a top secret, undercover, government project, hidden from public sight?" the Doctor asked in confusion.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you don't have to deal with Contractors and Unions," Pete assured him and the Doctor dropped his head in his hands.

"Pete, I'm starting to think my mother had the right idea. Is it too late to drop myself into a black hole?" he groaned and Pete laughed.

"Don't worry, Doctor, I'm an expert at all of this and soon you will be too," he assured him.

"Not if I can help it," he grumbled and Pete chuckled at his expression of mulish obstinacy. "This is the 'way too slow path'!"

* * *

Romana dropped to the edge of the opening and hung by her fingers. James arms caught her around her calves and she released her grip, trusting him to slow her decent. She landed on him and he grunted at the impact.

"You okay?"

He nodded in the dim light and helped her to stand.

"Why is it always sewers?" he asked her with a groan, sweeping the torch across the brickwork of the crumbling ancient viaducts.

"Because we're the finest team of 'Lost Time Lord Search and Rescue' ever and this is how we prove our derring-do to the world?" she asked him with wide innocent eyes. He gave her a look of long suffering, kissed her cheek, and began walking away, following the beacon locator with practiced ease. "No?"

"No."

They jumped over missing sections of tunnel, climbed over piles of debris that neither one choose to examine too closely and eventually found a Void ship, tilted to one side, door open, with equipment and wiring ripped out and hanging lose.

To Romana's practiced eye it looked as though someone with more theory than practical knowledge had tried to put together a communications panel, but it was hard to be certain. What she was certain of, though, was that it was a huge mess.

She could sense a Time Lord's mind nearby, but it wasn't anyone she knew well, so she couldn't quite get a handle on their exact location.

"Hello?" James called out. "Anybody here? We're the rescue party!"

"I'm Romana, it's safe to come out now, the War is over," she sent with her mind and waited for an answer.

A skinny, filthy shape eased itself from a nearby pile of rubbish and peered at them with mild hazel eyes.

"Hi, I'm Romana, this is my husband, James, we're here to help," she told the half-hidden figure in a gentle coaxing tone.

"I'm Ellasiira," the girl announced and moved into the light that shone down from a hole in the street above.

"Hello Ellasiira, do you have anything you want to take with you? My TARDIS is nearby and we can get you to a bathtub, food, and safety." The girl looked around at the rubbish heap she'd been living in and shook her head.

"A bathtub sounds really good," she answered and came forward. She was on the short side, not quite up to James's shoulder, but she was older than Romana had at first assumed. She performed a bow of introduction quite creditably and Romana returned it, with James fumbling a bit through his. He was still working on the nuances of Gallifreyan manners.

"This way then," she encouraged the girl and they headed back through the sewers.

James hoisted Romana up, so she could grab the edge and pull herself back to the surface. She reached down and pulled Ellasiira up after her and then dropped a rope down to James.

"How long have you been down there?" she asked Ellasiira and the girl sighed out.

"Two years, six months, three days, fourteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes," she answered grimly. "I spent three years thinking I was human and then someone asked me about the broken pocket watch I always carried about. It got me interested and I opened it up." She shot an irritated glance down at herself. "I glowed golden in front of half the townsfolk and next thing I knew they were getting ready to burn me for a witch."

James scrambled onto the ground beside them and frowned.

"I didn't realize this world was quite that primitive," he commented, disapproval in every syllable.

"It wasn't, but apparently the 'magic' I performed led to a crises of faith across the whole area. I am single handedly responsible for the rise of the Church here and the toppling of the monarchy," she grumbled, to both of their dismay.

"Great, another mess to clean up," James grumbled and Romana shrugged philosophically.

"Someone has to do it, might as well be us, my dear." He sighed and nodded.

After a bath and clean clothes, Ellasiira turned out to be nearly three hundred, but was so skinny and underfed that she looked half that age.

"Well, I was apprenticed to Professor Dunal, High Energy Physics was my specialty at the Academy, and he just called me into his office one day and told me to go straight to the Lady Professor's house and do exactly as I was told. So, that's what I did. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for, but it's better than being dead, so there's that," she informed them in a very matter of fact tone and then she dived back into the chicken soup with a hungry will.

"Just so," James commented and Romana hid her amusement at how taken aback he was. Ella was not exactly pretty, but she had an interesting face; large eyes, sharp features, a wide expressive mouth, and a face covered in freckles. She was surprisingly blasé about her whole experience.

"I really just want to get back to work; I was halfway through a really interesting series of experiments with Alpha particles," she told them and Romana blinked at her.

"You do realize that Gallifrey was destroyed, that we're in another universe entirely, and that we're still trying to rebuild the alternate universe Gallifrey, but we mostly just have a bunch workmen running around with nano-assemblers and no running water, right?" she countered, her eyebrows climbing towards her hairline.

"Hmm. I'll need to order some equipment then," Ella murmured.

"From where? Gallifrey is a construction site, there are no manufacturers there," Romana protested.

"Oh, well, does Felspoon still exist in this universe?" she asked, but even as she was speaking, she had already wandered over to the console and began typing queries. "Ah? Good! They have always had equipment that was quite compatible with our systems, I have no doubt that I could cobble something together," she announced with satisfaction and they both just stared at her for a long moment, as she looked about expectantly, as though equipment would simply materialize around her.

"Right. We'll get right on that." Romana looked at James and he shrugged. "Scientists," she grumbled and they headed back to Gallifrey, wondering just how much help this girl was going to be and if she would be worth the trouble.

* * *

Andred watched as the last block of buildings for Torchwood 5 was completed by the nano-assemblers. He didn't quite understand the concept of a union for workers, since Nanites rarely complained about job conditions and robots usually just needed upgrading, but he trusted Pete to figure this stuff out for them.

Leela jogged by with a platoon of UNIT soldiers, running easily as the far younger men and women panted and wheezed behind her. He grinned rather evilly at the sight. They would need to train a lot harder if they wanted to keep up with his wife.

"She's doing wonders with them," Col. Mace chuckled. "They can't stand that a woman who looks middle-aged is running them ragged."

"Leela's being nice too; she hasn't taken them over the obstacle course yet. Wait till they see her scaling walls and leaping over chasms," Andred told him with a smile and Col. Mace got a gleeful expression on his face that boded ill for his soldiers.

"I can't wait."

* * *

Susan sat down sharply, reading the data with her hearts sinking. She'd long suspected that the interruption in her last regeneration had harmed this body, but she hadn't expected it to have such far reaching consequences.

She'd gone all those years desperately wanting a child of her own, one grown inside her own womb, and now it looked as though that wasn't going to be possible, not in this form, anyway.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked her with a sympathetic look.

"I know that I can always create a child from Koschei's and my genetics, of course, but I'd really wanted the experience of pregnancy, the wondering, the waiting, the whole mystery of motherhood and birth," she explained and he nodded his understanding. "I shouldn't be so upset."

"Nonsense, Susan, it's perfectly understandable," he contradicted.

Koschei came running into the room, looking worried, and she realized he'd picked up her distress, but hadn't sensed the cause of it. She saw him and burst into tears.

Arthur tactfully withdrew with a pat on Koschei's shoulder as he left.

"What's wrong, are you hurt?" her husband asked, grabbing her against him, radiating worry. She shook her head against his shoulder and he relaxed a bit.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you," she sobbed and he patted her, confusion and alarm in his mind. "I'm being s-silly. It's just that I so wanted to carry your child and give birth, but I can't, and I've waited so long…" she broke down and he cradled her against him, making soothing noises.

"Oh Susan," he murmured and she caught a thought in his head that made her jerk upright.

"What? You thought I wouldn't want to have children with you? Why not," she demanded. He flushed and looked away.

"Monsters and madmen, we don't usually get the girl and we certainly don't get families," he mumbled and she cupped his face in her hands and stared into the deep blue of his eyes.

"Thick," she murmured and then kissed him hard. He held her against him, returning the kiss with fervent desire and she wondered what it was going to take for him to figure out how much she loved him. He could see into her heart, she'd died for him, protected their secret for two hundred years, and been imprisoned for defending him, and he still couldn't believe in her. It was maddening. "Like a brick that head of yours," she finished, when they finally came up for air.

"I spent two hundred years thinking you hated me, it might take a while for me to get used to the idea that you don't," he told her, looking rather abashed.

"Well I spent two hundred years waiting for you to return my phone calls, you jerk," she grumbled and he looked at her in surprise.

"You tried to contact me?" He looked shocked and she dropped her head down and tried not to think about cricket bats in conjunction with his head.

"Yes, a couple of times, but you never returned my calls," she ground out. "I invited you to my graduation and you stood me up."

"I never got the messages, I'm sorry. I would have come if I had," he assured her. She looked at him and saw that he was telling the truth. "Seriously, though, back then, I would have come just to shock your family, crash the party, and then take you on the buffet table in front of everyone," he admitted with a wicked grin and she threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh love, I would have enjoyed that a lot more than the actual party we did have," she chortled and kissed him again.

"Look Susan, I did try to get back to you, time and again, but Rassilon made sure I was always assigned to be somewhere far away from you, and the control mechanisms he'd installed in me kept me from being able to disobey him."

"Dar told me, just before we escaped Gallifrey, that you'd never stopped trying to get to me. It was the one thing that let me believe that you hadn't left me behind on purpose," she whispered and he crushed her to him, opening his mind and memories to her. He let her see his anguished emotions, showed her the way he'd tried to get back to her, and how he kept losing consciousness each time and then he showed her the grief, despair, and rage he'd felt upon awakening again, believing he'd left her to die.

"I'm so sorry, Susan, I never would have left you of my own free will, never," he told her and she nodded into his shoulder. "I have never hated myself more than when I thought I'd left you to your death."

"Well, don't let it happen again, mister," she chuckled damply and he tightened his grip on her almost painfully.

"Don't ever get that far away from me again," he prayed and she drew his head down for another kiss.

"Never farther apart than this, love," she promised and he buried his face in her hair.

"Well, I might have to go to the loo occasionally; you can let me go for that, all right? He asked and she burst into laughter again.

"Oh, you ridiculous man!" They held each other for a long moment, chuckling softly and then he drew back to look into her eyes.

"So, really? Children," he enquired, his eyes so vulnerable and hopeful, that she couldn't force words past the lump in her throat and just nodded.

"Really," she answered and he closed his eyes, moved to tears, and she just hugged him close, wondering if they would ever find the bottom of all the pain they'd both suffered.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Heavy Traffic

Darginian leaned back and put his feet up on the desk, arms tucked behind his head, and smiled with benign friendliness at the fish headed alien who sat strip-tied to the chair in front of him. The office that Torchwood had given him was brightly lit, with the sort of industrial furnishing that seemed to typify human design sense. He'd spruced it up with posters of the galaxy's most wanted and a nice landscape of Mars, but it was really meant to intimidate, rather than relax, and he felt it worked well for that.

"Now son, we would really prefer not to have an inter-planetary 'incident' starting up here. Yes, you came to Earth without permission, yes, you stole a car and took it for a joy ride through Cardiff, yes, you broke several traffic laws, scared the crap out of a bus full of old ladies, and wrapped the car around a bank, but no one was hurt, or killed, so we are willing to let you off with a warning," he explained, still smiling and friendly. "That is, assuming that you leave the planet and do not return, are we clear?" he asked and studied the teenage alien with eyes that didn't contain any of the pleasantness of the rest of his expression.

"Yes sir, we're clear," he gurgled back and Dar nodded.

"Very well, your genetic imprint has been logged and entered into our system, it will be on the watch list, so this is the only warning you will get. Next time you come to this world, you will be penalized to the full extent of the law. Now your ship's been placed in our hanger, the soldier outside will escort you to it, and I expect you to clear orbit in twenty." Another affirmative gurgle and the fish departed.

"How do you do that?" Agent Murray asked him as she came in, watching the subdued alien departing. "He gives me nothing but lip, but he rolls over and pees himself when you look at him."

"It's a gift," he informed her, with a smile that actually did reach his eyes this time. "That, and my training as a CIA operative. We are taught how to project a low level empathic field. It influences emotional response rather subtly. It only works though on species whose brains are less sophisticated than yours, Geneva," he teased. "Since you still won't have dinner with me."

"Oh please, you're way too old for me, Dar!" she laughed.

"Five hundred years is still the prime of life for a Time Lord," he insisted and she rolled her eyes at him, grabbed the reports she needed and left. He was still chuckling as she departed. Teasing Geneva Murray was one of his favorite games these days.

* * *

"I never imagined that I would be praying for an invasion attempt, an apocalyptic crisis, something, anything to get me away from this barmy nonsense!" the Doctor cried out in despair as he saw the pile of paperwork Pete's secretary had brought in for him to sign. "Bureaucracy!"

"Now Doctor," she chided sweetly. "It's not as bad as all that, just sign everywhere I've put a sticky and you'll soon be finished!" He glared at her, not liking the way she was coaxing him, like he was a sulky child. She was a plump middle aged woman with a face like a platter, but she was utterly patient, friendly, and had a wicked sense of humor. Normally he liked her, just not when she came bearing papers to sign.

He sat down and let her put the evil in front of him though, and she briskly moved him through the forms with an efficiency he couldn't help but admire.

"Thanks Patty," he told her in a more gracious tone towards the end of the session. She smiled at him and went out with the stack of papers.

"Long day, Grandfather?" Susan asked, peeking her head around the doorjamb of his office with a sympathetic smile.

"Paperwork!" he wailed. "Let's go to Barcelona for lunch! Or maybe we can prowl the ruins of Skaro, see what happened to the Daleks in this universe, or even better, we can swing by Logopolis, see how they're coming with their equations!" She threw her head back and laughed at his frantic desperation.

"How about we head home and keep Rose from going stir crazy?" she suggested and he brightened up immediately.

"Rose will know where we ought to go!" he agreed and bounced up from behind his desk and out of the room. Torchwood could keep their nasty paperwork and their reports filed in triplicate, he was going to go somewhere fun!

* * *

Koschei very carefully avoided the word "waddle" even in his mind as Rose made her way through the Marrakesh Night Market. The smells of food cooking, the shouts of vendors, the chanting of evening prayers from a nearby mosque, the crowded bustle, all served to keep his head turning and his mind off of the way his best friend's wife was making her way, belly first, through the crowd.

He was having mixed feelings about pregnancy just then. On the one hand, there was a certain envy he was feeling as the Doctor walked beside Rose, both their faces beaming and radiant. However, the whole process looked extremely uncomfortable and the cravings, mood swings, and occasional crankiness, were things he wasn't going to miss dealing with.

Susan was remarkably even tempered, especially compared to Rose, and as wobbly as his own emotional states could get, he depended on her to keep him from losing it. She was his main source of stability right now.

He stopped suddenly in the middle of the souk and felt a sudden spurt of shame. Omega's fall, was he really that pathetic? Was he actually relieved that his wife couldn't get pregnant, just because he was an emotional basket case? What an absolute wanker he was.

"Shay?" Susan was looking at him with concern, he shook himself and moved forward again. "Are you wallowing again?" she asked him with a suspicious look on her lovely face.

"No, just trying to get the hang of thinking about other people as something other than pawns one moves around on a chessboard for one's own convenience," he sighed. "Nine hundred years of bad habits to get over," he continued with a shrug. "It seems that I am a selfish little tit."

Susan leaned towards him, but didn't touch him, the problem with being in a Muslim country is that public displays of affection were frowned upon, and none of them felt like going to jail today. Both women had their hair covered, but their exotically Western beauty was still attracting attention.

"You have been under the control of others since you were eight years old," she pointed out. "You haven't exactly been in any relationships that didn't involve you trying to invade or dominate." He winced, but she simply dimpled up at him. "How often have you ever had to take into account anyone else's wants or needs?" she asked, as she let her eyes roam over a wall of brightly colored fabrics.

"Well, only as much as needed to get them to do what I wanted them to," he admitted slowly. "You need to assess an ally, figure out their weaknesses, in order to properly exploit them." She nodded her understanding, then pointed out a rich blue silk, woven with twining flowers in red and green, to the merchant. A quick spate of Arabic between them and she had her purchase.

"How long did you usually keep someone around," she asked next and he squirmed in discomfort, as they walked on down past more stalls filled with a tantalizing array of merchandise, and edging through loudly talking shoppers.

"I had Lucy for about two and a half years, that was the longest I'd ever kept someone by me," he told her, while looking at the ground and trying not to feel sick. She tossed some coins to a man juggling fire and received his blessings with a smile.

"So, what kind of strategies have you developed for long term relationships?" He looked up at her and shook his head in bafflement.

"None. I don't even know where to start." It was a tough thing for him to confess, after all, he'd already married her and promised her forever, letting on that he was clueless as to how to go about it, probably wasn't the brightest thing he'd ever done.

"Oh my darling man!" she laughed and he turned, startled, to see genuine amusement in her eyes. "What a pair we make!" she shook her head, eyes still filled with merriment. "We've been bound up in each other for so long, but haven't actually been around each other for much more than a year! Of course we don't have a clue!" she gazed up into his eyes, her mouth curved into a smile of loving affection. "Tell you what, you tell me when I'm messing up and I'll tell you, between the two of us we ought to be able to figure this out eventually."

"It should only take us a hundred years or so," he grimaced, ducking his head in resignation.

"But worth every minute," she promised him and he felt his fears easing at her words. He simply nodded, suddenly rendered inarticulate by his relief. They could do this, with how deeply they cared about each other, they could find a way to heal his fractured mind and bring him back to full sanity. It was just a matter of time and time was something they were good at.

* * *

Alarms were wailing and there was running and shouting in the corridors. Susan ran to the door of the lab, wondering if this was another of Pete's surprise drills.

A group of men in black clothes, carrying guns came running towards her and she felt a jolt of terror. She knew all the soldiers stationed here on Gallifrey by sight. These men were all strangers.

The butt of a rifle struck her cheek and she reeled backwards, pain exploding in her head. She could feel Koschei's sudden consternation as she lost consciousness and fell into darkness.

* * *

The Doctor was yelling behind him, but Koschei had only one thought, one goal. Find Susan and kill whoever had harmed her. Gunfire had broken out ahead of him and he watched a soldier fall nearby, he leapt over the body, scooping up the woman's fallen rifle as he went, eyes afire and body moving with the enhanced speed of a Time Lord.

"Shay! Don't kill anyone!" the Doctor was shouting, but he was too far gone to care. Susan was hurt, possibly about to die and he wasn't about to lose sleep over anyone that got between him and her.

He saw a knot of black clad intruders ahead and he flung himself at them, using the rifle as a bludgeon, whirling around in a round house kick that took out one man and then bashing the next one over the head with his weapon. Two more went down under his frenetic blows and then he was past them, moving towards where he could feel his wife's unconscious mind.

One man had his pistol out and pointed at her supine form. Snarling like an animal, Koschei leapt on the man and bore him to the ground, then smashed his face with the rifle butt. When it became apparent that no other threats to Susan were present, he allowed himself to gather her up in his arms. The sounds of fighting had died down and he checked her pulse, breathing out in sobs as it beat steadily under his fingers.

That's when he saw the babies.

His wordless howl of anguish was audible throughout the city.

* * *

"How did they get here?" Pete was screaming over the communicator. "How the hell did our security get breached like this?" A pause as the person on the other end spoke and then Pete sagged and went pale. "How many casualties?" Another pause. "Oh my God."

The Doctor stood, his arms wrapped around his body, his head down, and the bone deep anguish in him, the feeling of utter despair was pounding him flat.

Only two of the babies were still alive in neo-natal ICUs on Earth, there were thirteen dead Torchwood agents, two dead UNIT soldiers, fourteen injured from both groups and Dr. Arthur Davis, who'd dreamed of helping save lives, was fighting for his own.

"Doctor, it was a fringe eco-terrorist group, the Children of Mother Earth, they call themselves," Pete told him, but he shook his head.

"I don't care, Pete, what some group of ignorant violent savages call themselves," he told his father in law. "We were building something wonderful here, humans and Time Lords, working together to make a better future for both of our races."

"It can still happen, Doctor, it's not over," Pete assured him, but the Doctor shook his head again.

"No, it's too soon for your race, Pete, they're not ready," he replied and left the office. He wanted to go home, hold his wife, and mourn the ten dead children of Gallifrey, who would never have a chance to grow up now.

* * *

Susan opened her eyes and saw her husband's face hovering above her.

"They were going for the children!" she cried and he nodded, his face closed and pinched. She sat up, staring at him, waiting for answers that she already dreaded.

"Eddy and Matilda survived," he told her and her hearts broke.

"Why?" she wailed and he held her tight as sobs wracked her body, as she wept and howled for the loss of ten souls that had been taken from them with violence and anger; ten children that had represented the future of her race.

* * *

"Pete! Pete! Come see this!" Jackie called to him and he raised his head from his hands and looked over at his wife with weary resignation.

"I'm not really in the mood, Jackie," he murmured and she shot him a look of irritation.

"You're going to want to see this, Pete!" she insisted and he dragged himself up off the floral couch and followed her from the room, across the hall and into the media room.

On the large screen TV was a picture of the canary wharf building and in the foreground were candles, flowers, packages, and baby toys. The camera pulled back to reveal thousands of people standing vigil.

"What is this?"

"Someone leaked the story about the babies being killed to the press. All these people have come to lay flowers and cards and things in front of Torchwood. Not just here either! All over the world, at every British Embassy, there's people bringing gifts and lighting candles. It's everywhere!" she told him, her face crumpling and tears leaking from her eyes. "They came to show how sorry they are."

Pete Tyler turned and ran from the room, heading for the basement and the Trans Mat.

"Pete?" Jackie called after him. "Where're you going?"

"To show the Doctor! To show him we _are_ ready!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – News of the Day

The Doctor stood staring out the window of the hospital. Behind him Dr. Davis's breathing was forced and labored, machinery pumping his lungs.

Susan, head still bandaged and eye black and swollen, was working quietly, her medi-kit, which contained more sophisticated equipment in it than the whole hospital did, open on the bed. He knew full well that she could have taken ten minutes to tend to her own injuries, but her concern for her colleague and friend had made her forget herself completely.

Koschei stood behind her, arms crossed, looking as though he'd kill the next person who so much as spoke to her. The terror of the attack had yet to fade from his mind, hence his attitude just then, which was reminiscent of a guard dog standing over a rib-eye.

Susan was scanning Davis' brain, looking for the blood clot that was keeping him from waking up.

"Come on, where are you?!" she mumbled and then frowned. The Doctor glanced at her and then back out the window.

Outside there were still crowds gathered. Signs were being held up. "Gallifrey/Earth – One World" said one, "We are all Aliens" said another, "All Children Should Be Loved – Not Killed" went a third. His wonderful humans, his amazing, brilliant, impossible humans, they were out there, holding up placards, singing songs, lighting candles, gathering together to show the alien refugees on their world that they weren't afraid of them, that they were welcome.

It made him so happy, even in the midst of his grief, his sorrow, and his rage, he had this core of joy from seeing the crowds outside, all of them there to mourn Gallifrey's children.

"Doctor?" Rose called him from the door. He turned and saw her standing there, with a curious smile on her face, and beckoning to him. He went out to her and in the hallway came to an abrupt halt. Standing between two soldiers, hands cuffed behind her back was someone who he'd have known in any universe, who he trusted without question, and would protect forever.

"Sarah Jane Smith?" he gasped and a huge smile spread across his face. She was wearing a navy blue suit jacket and slacks, her hair in its familiar bushy state, brown eyes wary, and stance aggressive, even handcuffed she radiated attitude.

"I'm sorry? Have we met?" she asked him in perplexity and he shook his head, feeling a terrible homesickness for his own Sarah Jane, who had saved the world a thousand times at his side and then gone and done it all again all on her own.

"No, of course not, I'm just a big fan of your work. The exposé you did on corruption in Afghanistan was brilliant!" he told her and she blinked at him in surprise.

"I thought you people had only arrived on Earth about a year ago!" she exclaimed and he smiled at her.

"You were the one who leaked the story, weren't you?" he sighed out and looked at the soldiers behind her and the cuffs. She glared at him, defiant and unafraid and he couldn't help but grin at her. Rose cleared her throat, trying hard to look intimidating and serious over nine months of belly.

"I told Pete that we should be the ones to decide what to do about her, since we were the ones most affected by her reporting," Rose told him and he nodded.

"Miss Smith, or should I call you Mrs. Dalton?" he asked politely and she blinked at him startled.

"Not many people know of my marriage, we keep it quiet. My husband is a barrister and there are some who might feel that marriage to a journalist compromised him," she explained. "So, Miss Smith is fine, Doctor."

"Very well, Miss Smith, I think that at this point, there is little reason for secrecy anymore and every reason for openness," he nodded at the soldiers and they released her cuffs. She brought her hands around, absently rubbing her wrists and studying him.

"Then let's start with your actual name, Doctor who, exactly?" she asked with an arched brow, already pulling out a micro-recorder. He barked a laugh and then sighed, she was still the same firecracker she'd been when she'd first met his third self, all those years ago, in another universe.

"My people have many customs that might seem odd to you, Miss Smith, and one of them is that we can choose to discard our names at important points in our lives and, once discarded, a name cannot be used again. When I was younger, I chose to discard my old name and choose "Doctor" to be my name, I cannot bring that other name back, I cannot even speak it anymore, so "Doctor" is my name now," He explained, skirting around the secrets that could not be told in any universe.

"Very well, Doctor, so how open do you intend to be here?" she asked next and he could see that she sensed he was holding back a bit.

"As open as I can be, I suppose. I'm over nine hundred years old, I have had nine other forms in all that time, have traveled throughout space and time, seen futures that might not come to be, and pasts that have ceased to exist, I can see the structure of Time, can feel the Earth turning beneath us, sense our movement through space, I always know what time it is, no matter what galaxy I'm in, and have read every scroll in the Library of Alexandria, so I'll tell you what I can, but it may not come out in any particular order," he apologized, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Why don't we start with where you came from?" she asked him with a look of dismay.

"Ah! A proper interview!" he agreed and then looked around the hospital corridor. "This may take a while, Morton, Eisner, would you gentlemen be so kind as to escort Miss Smith to the TARDIS, I'm going to check on Dr. Davis's condition and then I'll be right along," he told them.

"I'll go too, I really need a bit of a sit down," Rose grumbled, rubbing her belly. "Damned Time Lord gestational periods." He kissed her and gave her a concerned look. "Oh stop fretting, dear, and go see to Susan, I think she needs you now more than I do," she chided him and he nodded. "I'll keep Sarah Jane entertained until you get back."

"May I make a phone call, my son Luke is probably pretty worried about me," Sarah Jane interrupted and the Doctor grinned suddenly.

"Lukey-boy! That's brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! So, the Bane came here too?" he asked and she started, almost dropping her phone.

"How…?"

"All will be revealed, Miss Smith!" he promised and shooed her away.

The Doctor turned to re-enter the hospital room when he spotted the last person in the universe he expected to see here.

His son.

Tall, handsome, with the darker gold hair he'd received in his last regeneration, and the green eyes that watched him as warily as the blue ones had before. His stiff, formal, arrogant son, with his head stuffed full of lineages, and past greatness.

"Father," he greeted him with the proper bow of deference to his Head of Household, but without his usual formal phrases of greeting.

"Son," he returned both the greeting and the bow, wondering what to make of this unexpected visit.

"How is Dr. Davis doing?" A question that floored the Doctor completely. Since being found and returned to Gallifrey, he'd not noticed that either his son, nor his daughter-in-law had made the slightest effort to integrate with the humans now living and working on their world.

"Susan's taking care of him," he answered and there was an easing of tensions in his shoulders.

"Then he'll be all right? One of the soldiers tells me that he tried to shield the babies with his own body, that the two infants that survived, lived because he threw himself over them to shield them from the bullets." He watched his son clench his fists in distress, his eyes filling with sudden tears. "I never even tried to speak to him, not once!" The disgust he felt with himself was apparent in every syllable and the Doctor looked at him son with sudden hopefulness.

The door to the hospital room opened and Susan stepped out, leaning heavily on Koschei. Her face was still smashed up, but her expression was peaceful.

"I got the clot, Grandfather, he should be waking up soon," she told him.

"Well done, child," he replied and then looked at his best friend. "Get her back in a bed will you?" he requested and Koschei nodded, swinging her up into his arms and carrying her off.

"I can walk!" she grumbled, but the Doctor noted that she wasn't fighting very hard against the indignity, and he smiled.

"You still have a chance to talk to Dr. Davis," he pointed out to his son and they stood there staring at each other for a long moment.

"I do, father, and I will," he answered and opened the hospital room door.

"He's not awake yet," the Doctor pointed out.

"Someone should be here when he does wake," his son answered.

"Thank you, Evarian," he replied, using his son's name for the first time in five hundred years.

"It's no problem, Dad," his son answered, and the Doctor turned and left, not wanting his son to see that he was crying.

* * *

Rose sank down in the plush wing-chair and smiled as Sarah Jane Smith wandered around the console room, turning around and around, trying to take it all in.

"It's bigger on the inside!" she exclaimed and Rose grinned, tongue in teeth, and nodded. The Doctor was right, this really was the best part.

"It's dimensionally transcendental, if you want, I can show you the equations later," she informed her. She could too, she realized, Malla had them all there in their shared brain space.

"Interview…" Sarah Jane murmured and visibly wrenched herself back into focus. Rose gestured her to the other chair and then looked at the UNIT soldiers.

"If you gentlemen want anything from the kitchen, go right ahead, she waved to them and they nodded.

"Can I get you some tea, Ma'am?" Morton asked her and she nodded gratefully.

"Oh yes, please, Ted, I'd love that," she answered and they wandered off.

"So, where are you all from?" Sarah asked and Rose grinned again.

"Well, I'm from Earth actually, born completely human, to Pete and Jackie Tyler, but on an alternate Earth in a parallel universe" she explained to Sarah Jane.

"What?" Sarah began and Rose waved her off.

"If I stop to answer every question, we'll never get through this, trust me, let me just tell you the story and we'll get through this much faster!" she laughed and Sarah Jane nodded. "When I met the Doctor, I was an ordinary shop girl living in the Powell Estates on Earth. He was investigating an alien invasion of Earth by the Nestene Consciousness and I got caught up in fighting the Autons with him," she continued.

"Yes, I remember the attack about a year ago," the brunette reporter assured her.

"This was the other universe, Sarah Jane, so it actually happened in 2005 for me, or what would have been 2008 for you, since this universe runs ahead by three years. Anyway, I traveled with him all over the universe, we went to the far future, we went to the past, we saw alien worlds and distant stars, it was amazing.

"Then one day we landed somewhere and we discovered that the enemies that had destroyed his home-world had returned and were trying to destroy Earth. The Doctor knew he couldn't stop them all, not by himself, and not without dying in the process, so he sent me away to safety." Her voice trembled as she spoke, she still couldn't remember her desperation and grief at that time without tearing up. "I did something sorta stupid and dangerous, because I was desperate to save him. I got a bit too intimate with the inner workings of his TARDIS console," she explained, waving at the center pillar with a sigh. "Got enough power to get back to him and rescue him, but it nearly killed me." She took a deep breath. "The Doctor took the energy out of me, but it was too much and it killed him. Luckily, he's a Time Lord, so he was able to use this biological temporal trick to reboot his life, albeit in a different looking body." She looked at Sarah Jane's expression and shook her head. "Whole 'nother discussion," she told her with a grimace.

"So, how did you become a Time Lord?"

"Susan, who's the Doctor's granddaughter, specializes in genetic engineering and medicine, and she explained that what I'd done had essentially kicked me sideways along the genetic tree, halfway to Time Lord. All I needed was the correct biological template and she could finish the job. We found that on a world where two Time Lord refugees had already died and she used the template from one of them to overwrite my DNA and make me a full Time Lord. It hurt, by the way, a lot," she informed her with a grimace. "If I hadn't been head over heels for the Doctor, I wouldn't have done it, but God help me, I love the man to distraction," she laughed and shrugged and Sarah Jane smiled at her in understanding.

"How much of this story do you want me to tell people?" Sarah asked her next, leaning back in the chair and crossing her legs, and Rose shrugged.

"How much of it do you think people could handle?" Rose turned the question around on Sarah and shrugged. "I'm happy to tell you anything that isn't classified and let you figure it out for yourself. Dad says you've always been really good about knowing what to report and what just ought to stay secret, and if he trusts you on this, then I certainly do."

"Thank you," she replied, with a smile, brown eyes warm and friendly. "What do I call you, anyway? The press still refers to you as Miss Tyler, even though you're married."

"Well, _you_ can call me, Rose, but Miss Tyler is fine for print. Gallifreyan society doesn't have last names and women don't change their names when they marry. It was a society of complete equality of the sexes, which was one of its best points," she informed her, sinking down a bit in the chair.

Morton came out with the tea tray and set it on the side table between the chairs.

"Sorry that took so long, Ma'am, the TARDIS had moved the kitchen again and we had a bit of trouble finding it," he explained and Rose shot an irritated look at the console, which was doing an excellent impression of an inert device that had never had a thought in its entire existence.

"That wasn't very polite, you know," she scolded her and the console blinked contritely at them. "She apologizes. She's been feeling uneasy since the attack and has been redecorating to keep herself from fretting too much," she explained.

"That's okay, lovely lady, no hard feelings," Ted assured the TARDIS and patted the console on his way back towards the kitchen. Rose was certain that the TARDIS was purring in response.

"It's sentient?" Sarah Jane was staring around in alarm, but also with a creeping sort of resignation.

"She's an eleventh dimensional consciousness folded into a mechanical construction that's been grown from…" she paused, saw the look of blank incomprehension and changed tack. "Yes, she's sentient, but it's not a human sentience, she doesn't think in the way that we do," she finished. "It's complicated."

"I think that a lot of things around you are going to turn out to be a lot more complicated than I had initially realized," Sarah Jane chuckled and Rose shrugged.

"Oh tea!" the Doctor cried out in delight as he bounced into the TARDIS. "Any cookies?"

"I think that Ted and Marty are fetching them now," Rose assured him and he grinned. He looked at the console.

"Sorry to trouble you dear, but could I get another chair, please?" he asked and the flooring next to Rose's chair began to shimmer and shift. A tendril of something like ivy extended itself and then grew, winding around itself until a third wing-chair was formed. The process took only a moment or two and the Doctor tossed himself into it without hesitation. "Thank you, dear!"

"That's amazing!" Sarah Jane choked out.

"Nano-assemblers," the Doctor shrugged, as if it was nothing at all and Rose sighed at him. He was such a bundle of contradictions, awed by things she took for granted, and unimpressed by the most incredible feats of high technology.

What was Sarah Jane going to make of all of them and how were they going to explain themselves to her? There was hundreds of years of history, alternate and otherwise, and it was all so complicated.

"Oh Sarah, it's all a big ball of wibbly wobbley timey whimey…stuff," the Doctor was saying and Rose dropped her head into her hands. Or, she could just let the Doctor babble the poor woman into insensibility; after all, he did it so well.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 –Geneva

Agent Geneva Murray took a deep breath and marched into Darginian's office with a face designed to show him how serious and determined she was.

"Geneva, have you come to finally succumb to my charms?" he asked with a grin and she rolled her eyes. So much for her attempt to make him be serious for a change.

"No, I have something important to discuss with you, Dar," she chided him and he looked up at her with tragic eyes.

"But my undying love for you _is_ serious, Geneva, my angel!" he sighed out, big brown eyes trembling with unshed tears.

"UNIT is alarmed by the attack on Gallifrey, they are asking that Torchwood be taken off point for the project and that they be given control over security and operations," she informed him and all acting and pretense dropped away and he became the focused, rather dangerous man that she knew he could be. The eyes went from humorous to hard as agates and he straightened in his chair, so that his height was suddenly more obvious.

"What does this mean for us?" he rapped out and she settled down in the chair in front of his desk and pulled her pad out, running a finger over the screen. She called up the files on UNIT and began reading out her notes.

"Well, it does mean more military support…" she began.

"The Doctor won't find that comforting," Dar warned her and she nodded.

They put their heads together and got to work, which was how Geneva Murray liked it best. She much preferred the serious Dar, the dangerous man with the opaque eyes, to the clown he played so often.

She understood why he did it; after all, she was a damn good spy herself.

* * *

Koschei carried Susan back to her TARDIS, walked into the console room, and paused only an instant to blink in surprise at Sarah Jane Smith, sitting in the room, chatting with Rose. Neither woman saw him, so he just slipped through the door that led towards the bedrooms, Susan cradled against him.

Her room was usually a few doors down, but her TARDIS had moved it closer for his convenience. Susan wasn't as light and slender this lifetime as she had been and while he really appreciated the lush curvy body with a connoisseur's delight, it was a trifle too heavy to cart around all day.

He nudged open her door and set her on the bed.

"I could have walked, you know," she informed him, but he just shook his head.

He watched her pull out a flesh regenerator from the Medi-kit and apply it to her black eye with a hiss of discomfort. The skin lightened and turned pink again and she ran a quick scan on her head and squinted at the readout.

"Everything all right?" he asked, still worried.

"Yes, I have a thick skull," she joked, but he didn't think it was funny.

"You could have been killed." He was incandescently angry at the people who'd tried to hurt her. He wanted to rip and tear and destroy. It frightened the hell out of him.

"So could you, Shay! You charged in there with no thought for your own safety, at all!" she scolded and he shook his head.

"I survived the planet of the Cheetah People, Susan. I took apart Dalek slaves with a laser screwdriver, and killed one tenth of the human race with a bunch of children. I am far more dangerous than anything the human race can throw at me," he countered. "I was a front line soldier in the Time War, I could have killed every one of them without breaking a sweat. I was the Master for a very long time and I have forgotten nothing of what I am capable of."

She was looking at him and there was no fear in her eyes, just a deep well of sorrow and compassion that stilled him completely. He breathed out, releasing the fury, his shoulders slumping, as he scrubbed his face with his hands, wishing he could wash his past away with the gesture.

She scooted over and patted the bed beside her. He climbed in and they wrapped their arms around each other, huddling together like children.

He'd been so scared.

"Me too," she answered his thoughts and he kissed her, as much to reassure himself that she was still there as anything. She melted against him, hands rubbing his shoulders, easing the tension that had him feeling off kilter and overwrought. He relaxed under her clever fingers, but he still felt anxious.

"I nearly lost control, Susan," he admitted.

"You didn't though, no one there died at your hands," she reminded him and he nodded.

She moved her hands lower and he growled in her ear.

Susan always seemed to know exactly what he needed and when he needed it. Right now, he just needed her, he needed to feel something that wasn't hatred or anger. He needed the absolution that he found in her arms.

* * *

"Romana and James had arrived, intending to drop Ellasiira off on Gallifrey and be on their way again, but they ended up spending several hours getting debriefed by Jake and Col. Mace," Pete told them and Dar nodded his understanding.

"Romana alright?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

"She was pretty shaken, but she's a fighter, that one. I think James was actually more upset than she was," Peter answered, his face on the screen looking grim.

"The one to watch though will be Susan. She has suffered far too much already, and she was the one who was closest to those children. She was in there every day, watching them grow, and she loved every one of them. Koschei may be a bit volatile for a while too, he's gone through a lot, waited a long time to finally be able to have a life with Susan and her being attacked like that might be rather triggering for him. Take it easy on both of them for a while, okay?" Dar told Pete and the other man nodded slowly in answer.

"Dangerous?" he asked

"Susan? No way! Koschei? Only if he thinks someone is trying to hurt her. On his own, he's no threat, but if he thinks she's in danger…" Dar paused and looked at Pete with a grimness that he hated feeling. "Just don't get between him and anyone threatening her, that's all I have to say. He might hate himself for it later, but it won't stop him from doing whatever he thinks is necessary." Dar knew what the Master had been capable of and even though Koschei was one of his best friends, he knew that the capacity for violence lay leashed within him and Omega help anybody who ever gave him cause to let it loose again.

* * *

The Doctor was not pleased that UNIT was planning a more active role. He had come to accept Col. Mace, he was a decent fellow, reminded him a bit of the Brigadier in fact, but he was still a soldier and more likely to pull a gun than use his brains, which he found irritating.

On the other hand, Col. Mace was not happy either. Whoever they were sending, it was someone he did not approve of. Which, in a weird way, made the Doctor a little bit happier. As much as he was grudgingly starting to like the other man, anything that made an old soldier uncomfortable had to be something that he'd approve of.

However, just then he had other things on his mind.

Susan for one.

"Doctor," Arthur Davis greeted him as he came in the room. Evarian was sitting in the chair by his bed, a tablet on his lap, and they had apparently been deep in a conversation.

"Doctor," he greeted him back with a smile and the other laughed at what was becoming their own little joke.

"The funerals are today, I hear," Evarian sighed out, his face drawn and sad.

"Yes, the soldiers and agents are being buried in their hometowns over the next week, but the children will be buried in Brompton Cemetery, this afternoon. I was told that you could attend if you wanted, Dr. Davis, a wheelchair and a nurse are available for you, should you choose," the Doctor told him and Davis nodded.

"I would like that." He paused and looked at Evarian and then at the Doctor. "Is Susan going?" Evarian's head came up in sudden interest and the Doctor crossed to the window where the crowds outside were smaller, but still present.

"I don't know. She's still pretty shattered by it all; she hasn't really left the TARDIS in days. Koschei has been an utter wreck. He haunts the console room and tries to look like he's not worried. He's really rubbish at it though," he told him with a sigh.

"I know they have some sort of telepathy thing going on, not that I really understand it, mind you, but she always starts smiling about a minute before he shows up. It's actually rather sweet," the old man chuckled and Evarian looked at him in surprise.

"They are very deeply connected, yes," the Doctor confirmed. "They don't say much about it, but you can see it if you look."

"Once I started paying attention, it seemed pretty damn obvious, and I felt dumb for how long it took me to notice," Davis confirmed. "Can you ask him if she'd be up for attending the funeral?"

"I can't," the Doctor told him, shaking his head. "Had she been human, that blow to her head would have killed her. Only the thickness of our skulls saved her," he snorted with a bleak expression that belied the joke. "The thing is that Susan and Koschei spent two hundred years separated from each other by the political considerations of narrow minded politicians," he spat out, the fury that injustice still engendered in him rising.

"I wasn't told, Dad," Evarian suddenly blurted. "All I knew about it was when they sent me a message telling me that they had her. I never gave my consent for them to take her! I never did!" he cried. He stood up, hands twisting together and he began pacing the room and his terrible anguish came as a shock to the Doctor.

"You gave consent when she was eight, though," he pointed out, but his voice was gentle as he watched his son's distress.

"When she was little I thought I had to obey, do as I was told, but after she was gone, I was so relieved. I was so damn grateful to you, Dad!" His outburst drew a frown from the Doctor.

"You never said a thing!" he accused.

"I was always being compared to you and found wanting, in school, in life, always. You were the brilliant scientist, the great genius, and I was horribly mediocre." He stopped pacing and looked at his father with anguished eyes. "When you left and became disgraced, for the first time people treated me like I was better than you. I was weak, vain, and unutterably stupid. Grandfather praised me for the first time ever, told me that I did my duty by the family, I was so starved for that sort of approbation that I just kept my mouth shut." He shook his head in disgust. "Great Stars, what an idiot I was."

"We call it "Great Man's Son Syndrome," Davis informed him, breaking the silence that had fallen with a sympathetic smile. "It's more common that you might imagine." Evarian looked at him in startled amusement.

"Humans, it seems, are smarter than Time Lords in certain areas," he chuckled, looking at Davis with chagrin on his face.

"Yes, I'd noticed that myself," the Doctor answered with a wink at the elderly man in the bed.

"So about Susan and Koschei," Davis prompted.

"They were kept apart for two hundred years and then they each thought the other was lost forever, when they were separated into two different universes and the walls between them closed up," he continued, glossing over a great deal, but trying to express the gist of it to the other man. "They only got back to each other not even a full year ago and they are both understandably a bit fragile. To have nearly lost her like that has shaken him down to his core. He's terrified that there will be gunmen at the funeral, or a bomb, or something else, and I can't ask him about it without poking my fingers right into some rather fresh wounds."

"I understand," Davis nodded. "Leave the poor man be then. If she comes, she comes. I will go regardless," he informed the Doctor who nodded.

"Good man! I'll get the nurse then, shall I?"

"Please do, oh, and make sure she's pretty, eh? If I have to be tended to like an old man, at least I should have something nice to look at," he chuckled and the Doctor grinned.

"Consider it done!"

* * *

Wilfred Mott stepped into the TARDIS and looked around. Spotting Koschei he waved at him.

"Is Susan about?" he asked and the pale blond man twitched and forced a rather weak smile.

"She's in her lab," he answered.

"Is she then?" Wilf sighed and headed towards the door to the residential areas.

"She's still really upset, Wilf," Koschei murmured, his eyes worried.

"She'd not be much of a person if she weren't, my boy," he answered and kept going.

* * *

Susan looked up as her lab door opened and smiled as she saw Wilf peek around the door jamb.

"Hello, love," he called out. "You busy?"

"Not really, just running some results until I need to get changed," she told him. He came in the rest of the way and she saw the somber suit and tie and tears sprang into her eyes.

"You look very handsome," she told him and he flushed in embarrassment.

"Flatterer, you have a prettier lad than I ever was, hanging about outside." She chuckled at the thought of someone calling the Master "lad".

"Oh, Wilf, if only I was two hundred years younger," she teased him and he laughed.

"Susan, you cheeky girl!" he retorted and now she found herself smiling, her heart lightened just by being around this kind gentlemanly soul

"I'll go get ready," she told him. "Just be a moment."

Koschei was checking his tie in the mirror, feeling as though he was one huge twitching mass of nerves. He turned as Susan came out of the bathroom, wearing a simple black skirt and jacket, her hair pinned in place and her face still and calm.

"You ready?"

"Of course not, no one could be ready for something like this," she answered and stepped into his arms. "But you get up, you keep going, and you never stop."

"Says who?"

"Family motto," she told him with a sad smile.

He pulled her hard against him and kissed her with all the desperate fear that was raging through him.

"Don't you dare leave me, woman," he whispered fiercely.

"I'm not going anywhere, Shay," she assured him and releasing her was an act of will.

Together, they stepped out of the room and went to join Wilf.

The tiny caskets were what finally broke them.

Rose sobbed into her husband's shoulder and he had eyes like shattered glass. Susan and Koschei stood like statutes, frozen through. Dr. Davis, in his wheelchair, Evarian and his wife beside him, had his head bowed in grief. The ten couples who had waited and hoped for those children stood there as well, some sad, some angry, all of them lost and grieving. Donna, Jackie, Pete, Wilf, Jake, Dar, Geneva, they had all come to support their friends and to mourn lives that hadn't ever had the chance to begin.

Outside the cemetery, crowds gathered, silent and respectful, watching from a distance. Soldiers were everywhere, police snipers on the rooftops, UNIT soldiers on the ground, Torchwood agents amongst the crowd, all of them watching diligently for any threats directed at the mourners.

Sarah Jane Smith stood apart from it all, tapping at her ipad, recording the event, making notes for the story, and watching everything that was going on with the eyes of a reporter. Her eyes were roaming over everything, noting every detail.

So, when the shimmering light enveloped Susan, she was the first to cry out, to point in alarm.

Koschei grabbed at Susan and she reached back, crying out to him, and then they both vanished.

There was a long silent moment and then the shouting began.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Invasion du Jour

Susan felt herself being teleported and reached for Koschei. He grabbed her hard against him and they faded out together.

She stumbled and fell against a hard surface, her head ringing from the teleport. She shook her head to clear it, feeling like she was a bell that had been rung too vigorously. She was in some sort of small room with no visible doors and one huge window taking up an entire wall.

"Susan, you alright?" her husband asked her, while grabbing his head and wincing.

"God, I hate these cheap knock off teleports," she grumbled and he gave her the curled lip smile she loved so much.

"The motivator has been acquired!" a voice from nearby announced and Susan looked up to see who was speaking. Two rather large bugs were staring into the glassed fronted area that they were caged in. She felt very much like a specimen in a zoo.

"A second creature has been acquired! Remove it! It is unnecessary!" One of the bugs clacked out through its mandibles and Susan grabbed Koschei as tightly as she could. They were not taking her husband from her, not while she lived and breathed. He clutched her tightly and glared at the bugs.

"I'm not leaving her!" he shouted and the bugs seemed taken aback.

"Our speech is comprehended! Remarkable!" the second bug clacked out.

"You're speaking a dialect of Wirrn, it's not exactly difficult to grasp," Susan sighed out. "I spent six years on Andromeda when I was in my early hundreds," she continued and then shot Koschei a look of long suffering. "Grandfather liked the cookies there and kept putting off our departure."

"You have seen the Hive Home?" asked the creature and Susan shook her head.

"Not inside of it, of course, the Wirrn never let 'other kind' into the Hive itself, but the outside was really quite spectacular. For a building made entirely of bug spit, it was remarkably beautiful." She remembered the twisting spires above the rounded bulk of the main hive and the lacy decorative strands that looked like icing piped everywhere.

"Then you will understand our need! Our world is destroyed, the enemy came and all was lost! Our Queen was saved and so we seek a new home. We have lost our motivator though, she is dead! You will be our new motivator, other kind, you will take us to our new home!" the first bug chittered excitedly, forelegs waving and mandible clacking as he spoke.

"I'd like to help you, but I have no idea what you need me for," Susan explained.

"Look, we have ships and technology," Koschei cut in. "We can help you out with that, but you didn't have to kidnap us for that!"

"You are workers, you will be used to the best interest of the Hive. Put the Motivator in the tank, dispose of the other, that is all," the voice that spoke now was louder, more resonant, and decidedly female. The other two bugs prostrated themselves on the floor as the voice spoke.

"I won't help you, if you harm him!" Susan shouted.

"You will obey the Queen!" the voice thundered.

"Like hell I will!" Susan shouted back. "I've resisted minds far stronger than yours, Queen!"

"Susan," Koschei murmured, warning in his voice. "Don't piss her off."

"Very well. You value the worker, then you will help or we will kill it! Separate them!" the Queen countered. The glass wall slid open and the bugs moved forward. Unarmed and alone on an alien ship, Susan felt a surge of anger at the Queen. She'd been ripped away from the babies' funeral, dragged up here, caged, and dictated to, insulted and threatened. She was getting sick of this nonsense.

Koschei stepped in front of her, dropping into a fighter's crouch.

"Who're you calling a worker!" he shouted and lashed out with a foot at the nearest bug. "I'm a Time Lord, you bastards, and I'm going to squash the lot of you!"

* * *

The Doctor raced back to their flat, Rose's shouted concern still echoing in his ears. She was due next month and there was no way he was taking her with him on a rescue mission, but he still missed having her there beside him.

The van was filled with Time Lords, Torchwood, and UNIT personnel, and one very angry nurse, chiding her patient and trying to get him to go back to hospital.

"I'm not going anywhere until Susan is back safe!" Davis insisted and the nurse finally gave up in resignation.

He was furious that the funeral had been interrupted like that. He'd had to leave the grieving families to finish it with as much dignity as they could. Donna and Jackie had taken over for him which was a relief. Between the two of them, they ought to have the planet sorted out by the time he got back.

"Was it the eco-terrorists?" Jake asked him from the passenger's seat.

"No," the Doctor muttered, as he hauled the van around a corner. "The energy pattern was alien in origin and it was a really mean and dirty teleport. They aren't a very sophisticated race, whoever they are."

"More than we are," Jake shot back with a laugh and the Doctor shook his head.

"Nonsense, the Trans Mats you lot built were much better than this stuff. Your scientists even improved on my designs," he told Jake, who looked back at him with a small smile.

"Don't you ever feel like we're a bit primitive?" he asked.

"No! You humans are brilliant! You have taken ideas that it took my people thousands of years to develop and made them work in a mere hundred years! We are a clever race, we Time Lords, but we're cautious, slow, and not particularly imaginative. But you lot! Give you two pieces of wood and a string and you build a kite! Give you a couple of rocks and some tools and you carve an entire city out of a mountain! Stuff we'd never have thought of in a million years! Don't ever sell yourself short, Jake, your lot has more innovation, imagination, and creativity in your pinkie finger than most of my people had in their whole bodies!" the Doctor informed him, bouncing a bit in his seat and still driving at a breakneck speed.

They screeched up to the flat and the van opened, very much the way the Doctor imagined a clown car must, disgorging far more people that he'd realized were back there. He was running up the steps though, not bothering to count heads, he needed to get to Susan's TARDIS and figure out where she was.

* * *

Susan had found a stick and was bashing a bug over the head with it, while Koschei was still kicking them, his boots making crunching noises that she found rather disturbing. They were fighting their way along a narrow bridge above a deep shaft. So far it was the most defensible position they could find. Only a few of the millions of insects could attack them at once.

"I said I would help you, but you just couldn't ask nicely, could you?" she shouted. "You just had to act like wankers, didn't you?" She swung and knocked one of the bugs off of the walkway and it tumbled down the shaft.

"Kill them both!" the Queen screeched and beside her Koschei started to kick even harder.

"If we end up killed by bugs, I am going to be really damn embarrassed!" he called out to her and despite the seriousness of the situation she found herself laughing.

"God, I love you!" she told him and knocked another bug off the walkway.

"Love you, too," he replied. He spun and booted one of the bugs right in the sphincters and it fell over wheezing. "Of course you know you're crazy, right? Because this is not a romantic moment here!"

"_I'm_ crazy? Look who's talking! I'm not the one who spent nine hundred years with a goatee and a sinister laugh!" she countered, still swinging the stick.

"Hey, a really good evil laugh is mandatory for mad geniuses! And I'll have you know that the goatee was very popular with the ladies!" he shouted back and grabbed the legs of one bug and tipped it over the edge. The insects didn't weigh much, but they were quick and their forelimbs were sharp. "They were crawling all over me!"

"Another reason I'm glad it's gone!" she retorted. The mere thought of other women 'crawling all over' her husband made her angry enough to bat two more of the insects over the edge.

"Jealous cow!" he laughed and she could feel his amusement in her mind.

"You better believe it, you!" she shot back, not finding it at all humorous. "It won't be very funny if I ever catch a girl trying something with you!"

"Not to worry, love, you're the only one mad enough to want me," he assured her and dodged a slashing mandible. "I honestly don't even know why _you_ put up with me!"

"Deep seated masochism, no doubt," she answered and looked around in sudden hope. "Do you hear that?"

"What? You mean the sound of someone flying a TARDIS with the parking brake on?" Koschei snarked and she laughed. "Must be the Doctor, late to the party as usual!"

"Is this a party?" she panted. "I didn't see a buffet and where's the open bar?"

"Susan! Koschei!" the Doctor was calling and they began working their way towards where, what appeared to be a battalion of soldiers was pouring out of her TARDIS.

"The cavalry has arrived!" Jake hollered and she waved her stick in triumph and then got back down to work.

"Kill the intruders!" the Queen was screaming.

"We're trying!" huffed one of the nearer bugs with a sour tone and Susan grinned. That'll teach them to kidnap this particular husband and wife, she thought with a fierce joy.

"You and me, love," Koschei chuckled from beside her, picking up the thought from her mind.

"You and me, 'Shay," she answered with a grin and whacked another bug. Back to back, covering each other, they worked their way towards the TARDIS and safety.

* * *

The Doctor was not amused by the Queen Wirrn. He didn't like anyone who kidnapped his family or friends to begin with and he especially didn't like people who tried to kill them. However, looking at her, he could see that she was very young. Her body was nowhere near as engorged as it would one day be by the demands of egg laying. She was utterly beautiful, iridescent greens, purples, and blues decorated her chitinous exterior, her eyes were like faceted cut rubies, and her mandibles were elegant and dainty. Even so, she had seriously overstepped the line here.

"You cannot go about kidnapping sentients, it's illegal and also quite rude, your Majesty!" he informed her.

"We required the motivator and the worker was useless, we do not understand the fuss being made!" she replied with a petulant tone that he did not find at all endearing either.

"The 'motivator' is my granddaughter and the 'worker' is her mate. We don't have a queen, all of our females reproduce, and you were trying to kill her drone, madam!" he informed her, hoping that Susan and Koschei never heard about this conversation. He very much doubted that his old friend would appreciate being called a "drone" anymore than he'd liked being called a "worker".

"What an inefficient reproductive method!" the Queen replied, sounding rather disgusted by the whole thing.

"Yes, well it works for us!" he snapped back and his face was thunderous. It didn't matter to him that he was lecturing an insect that towered above him, or that her multifaceted eyes were regarding him from three feet above his head, he still felt she needed a scolding. "Look, there are millions of sentient life forms out there and they all have different ways of doing things! If you want to trade with them, receive aid from them, or exchange knowledge with them, you are going to have to stop behaving so impulsively!" he chided her.

The Queen's head ducked down in embarrassment.

"We are sorry, Doctor, for our rash behavior. Please instruct us," she requested and he smiled at her. She really was very young.

"It would be my pleasure, Majesty," he informed her.

* * *

"He's doing what?" Pete asked them with a somewhat dazed look.

"He's giving lessons in first contact protocols to the Brood Queen of a sentient insectoid species," Susan repeated with a straight face and Koschei marveled at her ability. He was hard pressed not to giggle just thinking about it.

"She's a very young queen and she's very sorry for kidnapping us, but she didn't know that we weren't a hive mind species like her own," Koschei added and he too managed to speak without cracking a smile, though it was a very near thing.

Pete dropped his head down on his desk and took several long breaths.

"I just give up. The universe is simply too weird."

"Oh Pete, you have no idea," Susan sighed and patted his head gently. "This is nothing. Just you wait till Grandfather starts telling you about temporal paradoxes, collapsing timelines, consensual realities, multiple universes, bubble universes, exploded systems, sentient stars, E-Space, Logopolitan math and how it restructures reality, or any of the really weird stuff. You'll think alien insect queens with poor manners are simple everyday problems," she assured him with a sympathetic smile and Pete looked up at her, his horror mounting with every word.

"I'm going home, you two, to watch telly, kiss my wife, and put my son to bed. While I'm doing that, could you please make sure that nothing destroys the planet?" he asked her, looking a trifle frazzled.

"Sure thing, Pete," Koschei promised and Susan nodded.

"Thank you. I'm starting to think that maybe this UNIT takeover isn't all bad. After all, they'd be the ones to have to deal with you lot from now on," Pete sighed out, got up, and left the room.

"Susan, I think we broke, Pete," he informed his wife in solemn tones. She turned warm brown eyes on him, face full of mischief and amusement.

"I do think you're right, love," she agreed and then they both broke into laughter, unable to contain themselves for another moment.

* * *

The next day wasn't nearly as funny for them. Susan dragged herself back to Gallifrey, knowing that she had to clean up the lab and get it set up for the next attempts to clone a new generation of Time Lords.

She spent the morning doing that and then the afternoon in the Neo-natal ICU, checking on Eddy and Matilda.

The remaining two infants were doing surprisingly well, considering everything they had gone through, but Susan was still monitoring them carefully. Koschei had erected a telepathic shield around them, but Susan was worried about the effect that the nurses, doctors, et al were having on the children's developing minds.

"Morning Eddy," she called as she came in to see him and he weakly waved a tiny fist, his fuzzy, brown-topped head shifting a bit on the bedding. She took a deep breath and opened her mind to the infant.

Sleepy, incoherent thoughts brushed her own and she fought not to recoil from the contact. More deep breaths and she let him reach out to her, his fumbling unformed mind filled with an essential sweetness that she found soothing.

This wasn't so bad, she decided. She could do this.

Hunger invaded her and she gently pushed it back into his body and went to get a bottle for him.

* * *

Koschei peered around the door and saw Susan rocking the baby, feeding him a bottle, while she hummed to him. She looked natural with a child in her arms and he wondered how many children she'd raised with her husband. She never spoke of them and suddenly it occurred to him that she had lost them all. They were in another universe and she couldn't even go to check on them.

Even if she did get back to them, they wouldn't even know her. She looked nothing like she had then. She'd be a stranger to them.

He walked over to her and pressed himself against her back, nuzzling her neck, and peering down at the baby in her arms.

"He's kind of ugly," he commented and she glared at him.

"He's adorable," she corrected.

"Yeah, you do good work," he admitted and she chuckled.

"Yeah, I kinda do," she answered and the pride in her voice was welcome after all the years of self-doubt and insecurity.

"See now, just so you can tell the difference in the future, _this_ is a romantic moment," he pointed out and she turned and kissed him lightly.

"Oh, hush, you ridiculous, man!" she chortled and he leaned against her, just glad to be alive.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – The Wrong Instincts

Rose grabbed her belly and tried not to yell. Yelling would only alarm her already tense husband. Tense? No, she decided, looking at the way his hair was standing completely on end. Nervous wreck was a much better description.

Susan scanned her and nodded with satisfaction.

"You're dilating nicely, Rose, no complications at all so far," she informed her with a soothing voice and the Doctor jumped up and started pacing back and forth in the delivery room.

"I'm going to kill him," Rose muttered to Susan, who suppressed her grin so quickly that Rose wasn't even sure she'd seen it.

"Grandfather, it's going to be a little while still, could you go get Rose some water from the machine? She'll be thirsty." The Doctor bolted from the room and Rose chuckled before the next contraction hit her.

"He's not going to take long with that," Rose complained and Susan smiled.

"Not to worry, I've told Koschei to keep him busy for at least fifteen minutes," she assured her and Rose shot her a look of gratitude.

"You're a lifesaver, Susan, his life, by the way," she muttered.

* * *

The Doctor carried the tiny bundle out to meet the family, his face aglow and his hearts filled to over flowing.

"Everybody, I would like you to meet Jennifer Adelaide Tyler, Jenny, this is your family!" he announced and they all crowded around him, staring at the pink faced bundle in his arms, cooing and laughing, and congratulating him.

"She's beautiful!" Jackie assured him.

"Well, with a mother like Rose, she had to be pretty special, didn't she?" he agreed and grinned down at his baby girl. This time around he'd do a much better job, he promised himself.

"Hey, little sister!" his son chuckled and the Doctor smiled at him. Their relationship was still tentative, there was still so much pain between them, but maybe that could change to, in time.

"Hello, Auntie-in-law," Koschei teased and the Doctor rolled his eyes at his best friend.

"Well, that's what you get for cradle robing, you old goat!" he teased and the blond simply shrugged.

"Look who's talking," he pointed out and the Doctor sighed. He didn't have a leg to stand on in this area and he knew it. "At least Susan was of Gallifreyan legal age of consent." The Doctor winced and Donna elbowed Koschei in the ribs with a glare.

"So, when are you and Susan going to make me a great-grandfather?" he asked and Koschei's face suddenly went opaque, as he shrugged in a far too casual manner.

"We'll get around to it," he answered, but his very lack of an answer alerted the Doctor to the sudden emotional cow patty he'd just inadvertently stepped in.

"Let me hold that precious girl!" Donna insisted and he handed her over to his other best friend, who cuddled the baby with a huge smile on her face. "Oh, you're so lucky, she looks just like Rose," she teased.

"Oi! Watch your mouth, Earth-girl!" he laughed.

"Not likely, Martian boy!" she laughed back.

Looking around at his family and friends, the Doctor was suddenly struck by how full and happy his life was.

He hoped that his other self was happy in the other universe, but he had a feeling that it wasn't likely. It was as if the meta-crises had taken all the joy that should have been the original Doctor's and sucked it away from him. He was grateful for what he had, but a little guilty thinking about that other him.

Please, he prayed, don't let him be alone.

* * *

Koschei was curled around Susan, sleepily stroking her back. She turned in his arms, and he could feel her arousal spiking. He smiled, still only half awake and reached out instinctively, just as he had with Lucy, touching the pleasure centers of her brain and stimulating them.

Her shields slamming up and her sudden recoil from him woke him fully and a cold wash of horror slammed into him.

"Susan! I'm so sorry!" he cried and reached a hand towards her.

"Don't touch me!" she shouted and tumbled from the bed, curling into a fetal position on the floor. Fear, anger, and distress, radiated from her and he froze. Fear. Omega. She was afraid of him. Bile rose in his throat.

"Susan, please, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't, I swear it was an accident." He was babbling, pleading, the misery nearly overwhelming him. The only one who'd never been afraid of him, the only one who'd seen who he really was and she was lying on the floor, shaking and terrified.

He dragged on his pants and ran from the room.

He truly was a monster and he had to get himself as far away from her as he could.

* * *

Rose saw Koschei pulling on his shoes, face pale and eyes wild, and opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong. He looked up at her and his expression was so bleak that she stepped back in surprise.

"Koschei?" He stood there, panting and haggard and then he ran past her, out of the flat, like demons were on his tail. She whipped out her cell phone.

"Hey Rose," Darginian answered on the first ring.

"Dar? Something's happened, get after Koschei before he does something stupid, will you? I'm going to go take care of Susan."

"I'm on it," was his brief answer and Rose went straight to the guest room, hoping she could figure out what to do when she got there. It wasn't as though there were any training manuals for dealing with two Time Lords, both of whom were fragile and damaged, and who had a telepathic link they couldn't break. Regular marriage was hard enough, she sighed, and this was just not fair on either of them.

* * *

Dar ran past Geneva without even slowing, his homing beacon on Koschei leading him straight and true.

He knew that he probably should have removed the beacon when he first woke up and Romana and James had brought him back to Gallifrey, but he'd been uncertain at first about whether Koschei was really still dangerous. After that, he'd been worried about other things. Today was a day he'd long seen coming, but he really wished he could have been wrong this time.

He jumped into one of the black sedans from the pool downstairs. And then turned in surprise to see Geneva getting in beside him.

"This isn't official Torchwood business," he told her.

"You're a Gallifreyan about to drive around on Earth and those terrorists are still out there, Dar, you will have back-up, or you will be going nowhere." Her words were clipped and her eyes were hard. He nodded and it occurred to him that she was spectacularly beautiful in that moment. Scraped back bun, round face, brown eyes, nothing special to look at, yet there was a magnificent soul behind those spectacles. He forced that sudden knowledge down deep and closed the lid on it.

She was human. He was a Time Lord. Romana might be willing to go through that, but he wasn't. Nothing could ever happen between Geneva and himself. End of statement.

"Koschei did something stupid. I need to take care of him, make sure he's okay," he explained and plugged his pad into the car's computer, letting the homing device synch with the car's GPS.

"What kind of stupid?" she asked, sounding calm and professional.

"Don't know yet, but there is a lot of history that hasn't really been dealt with and he's really just a huge bundle of triggers walking around trying to pretend he's fine." He took a breath, trying to figure out how to prepare Geneva for what they were dealing with, without betraying his friend's trust.

"He's an abuse victim?" she asked and he turned that thought around in his head before nodding.

"Back in our ancient history the smartest, most powerful of us was Rassilon. He was a genius, smarter than the Doctor and Koschei combined, did things later generations could barely comprehend, let alone replicate. The problem was that he became corrupt. All that brilliance made him arrogant and he started to think he could do anything he wanted to. He found the secret to perpetual life, to continued existence for all of eternity and it made him even worse to deal with. Our ancestors got together and bound him into a tomb. They couldn't kill him, but they could keep him locked up forever, in a place that no one was allowed to go, and keep him from doing any more harm to anyone," he explained and he could feel her eyes on him, listening to everything he said and everything he didn't say.

"Okay, crazy madman in the attic, got it," she told him and he laughed.

"Well, when things were starting to go bad between us and the Daleks, the High Council got scared. They got desperate and desperate people do stupid things. They went and fetched him out of his prison and made him Lord President. Gave him all the power he wanted." His voice was bitter and angry, but he didn't care. Those idiots had doomed them all.

"I take it that centuries of imprisonment hadn't done his sanity any good?" she commented and he shook his head.

"A million years of imprisonment, actually, and no he was bat shit insane to begin with, now he was a megalomaniac with the barest grasp on reality. He decided to go to war with the Daleks, unable to comprehend that Gallifrey wasn't the most powerful civilization in the universe any more. He got them all killed, but before that, he did other things." He took a deep breath. "He took Koschei when he was eight years old and went into his mind, ripped it apart, and rebuilt it. He made the perfect soldier, sociopathic, psychopathic, brilliant, devious, and with no limits or boundaries."

"Good God!" she gasped out and he gripped the steering wheel harder.

"He took a good kid, a genius, a child with so much potential, and twisted him into something dark and terrible. He was trapped inside of that monster for nine hundred years, Geneva. Two hundred year ago he met Susan and, from what I have been able to piece together, she was able to get into his mind and start repairing the damage that had been done to him. But Rassilon separated them and for two hundred years, they've been trying to get back to each other, trying to fix what was done to him." He took a breath and released it. "But they've still barely had time to make a start on it all, they've had maybe a year and a half and most of that time has been spent trying to rebuild Gallifrey."

"So, he's a danger to himself?" she asked and it was so perceptive a question that he wondered why he hadn't told her all this before.

"Yes. If he's done something that hurt Susan, he'll be suicidal. I have to get to him before he figures out a way to kill himself."

"Drive faster," Geneva commanded him and he floored it.

* * *

Rose stepped into the bedroom and saw Susan huddled on the floor, naked and shaking.

"Susan?" she whispered, but the girl still flinched and curled up even tighter. "It's Rose, it's me, Tiza Rose, okay?" she was speaking in Gallifreyan she realized, and stepped aside to let Malla move forward a bit in her mind. "Are you harmed?"

"He…it was… he didn't mean to…" she murmured and Rose felt her hearts breaking. Whatever it was had triggered her into a near catatonic state, but she was still defending him, still trying to protect him even so.

"I'm certain that he meant no ill to you," Malla soothed in the gentle liquid syllables of Susan's childhood. "Are you harmed?"

"He never meant to, he forgot himself. He used Ra-hari Aliisema without premission," she whispered and Malla somehow shunted the meaning of the words away from Rose's mind. Incandescent rage was in the Time Lady's heart, but she still spoke to Susan with gentle mildness.

"An accident, unintentional, I know he would not ever harm you from malice," she assured Susan. Rose was wondering what had happened, but also not sure that she wanted to know. Malla wasn't the sort to not answer a question and yet, just then, Rose knew that no answer would be forthcoming.

"Speak to your husband about it, Rose, he'll be able to explain it in ways that can make you understand. Just know that it was a terrible violation of trust, especially to one such as Susanatrevalar who has held her mind against attack for so long," spoke Malla's voice in her mind, and she could see the older woman's sorrow and grief for all that Susan had suffered.

"It wasn't that so much, Malla, really, it wasn't," Susan answered, slowly uncurling from her ball and looking up at Rose with sad eyes. How she knew that it was Malla speaking to her, Rose wasn't sure, but there was something about her eyes, a gleaming golden-tinged look to them that was alarming Malla. "I have no defense against him, but he has none against me, either. When he… did that… my first instinct was to burn him out," the last few words were barely audible and Rose didn't quite grasp the meaning, Malla however did and was suddenly deeply afraid.

"But you did not, you held yourself back!" Malla reminded her, even as her own mind was building defenses around herself and Rose.

"He was upset when he left, but he was fine," Rose interrupted.

"He left?" Susan was scrambling up, looking panicked.

"It's okay, I sent Dar after him, he won't let him do anything stupid," Rose assured her. "Dar's known him for a century, he knows what to do." He promised me that he did anyway; she temporized in her own mind.

"I'm scared." Susan sounded so broken that Rose wanted to reach out and hold the girl, but Malla locked her muscles.

"Don't touch her! Physical contact heightens telepathic exchange, touch her now and she will feel violated!" Malla warned her silently and then released her body back to her control.

"Thank heaven I have you here to keep me from making a muck of things, Malla," she thanked the other and there was a feeling of warmth and affection from her.

"You are an amazing woman, Rose Tyler; your first instinct is always one of compassion and kindness. I am honored to be able to guide you in these small ways."

Rose felt humbled by the words and by the flood of admiration and kindness.

"What can I do, Susan?" she asked and the girl looked up at her, those sad ancient eyes so filled with regret, that it hurt her hearts to see it.

"I don't know yet," she admitted. "I just don't want to hurt him and I don't think I can stand being too near him right now. He was the Master for nine hundred years. Most of his instincts are still the Master's, not Koschei's. It's going to take time for him to get his head straight."

"Are you angry at him?" she asked not sure how to ask what she really wanted to know.

"No, I still love him," Susan answered the real question with a small sad smile. "I forgive him, I do. But, I have my own instincts and until I can get them under control, I'm not safe for him to be around."

"You should go to the Zero Room and meditate, child," Malla suggested and Susan nodded jerkily in response.

Susan dragged on her clothes and headed into her TARDIS, moving slowly and with her hands out, like a blind woman in an unfamiliar room.

"Is there anything else we can do?" Rose asked Malla.

"Not at this time, you need to go feed Jenny and then you need to have a long talk with your husband. He may have better advice, he's known Susan best and longest," was the answer she received and Rose nodded and headed towards her bedroom, where her infant daughter and her husband were both still sleeping.

Malla was right, she needed expert advice and next to Koschei, the Doctor was the one most knowledgeable on the subject.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Dark Times

Koschei was sitting on a park bench in Cremorne Gardens staring out at the Thames. He'd nearly been hit crossing King's Road from Rose's Chelsea flat and he hadn't cared. Susan's mind was locked up tight against him and he was wrapped in his misery, ignoring the way the scattered sunlight was casting shadows through the leaves of the trees.

It seemed that despite everything, he was still the Master after all. All the work he'd done to fix himself, those two lonely, awful years alone on Gallifrey and he was still a monster, still the twisted diseased animal that Rassilon had made him over into.

"Did you think I'd let you anywhere near her now? She's from a lineage far too refined for a mad dog like you to mount!" He could still hear Rassilon's contemptuous words and where before they'd angered him, now they just hurt. He _was_ a mad dog and she would be far better off without him. He had no right to hold her, to touch her, to claim to love her, when he was capable of such perfidy.

A shadow passed in front of him and he looked up to see Darginian standing in front of him, hands in his trench coat pockets, face unreadable. He sometimes forgot how big a guy Dar was and then he'd see him standing there, looking a piece of a wall come to life, brown eyes, brown hair, and that curiously mild pleasant face and it would all come back to him. CIA agent, right. Darginian was a dangerous man.

"Hey Koschei," he sighed out and then settled himself down on the bench, suddenly no longer the menacing secret agent and once again just his friend, Dar.

"I'm a monster, Dar," he told his best friend and saw him nod.

"Aren't we all," the ex-CIA agent agreed with him. "What happened?"

"I did something unforgivable," he answered, head down and shoulders slumped. Dar shrugged.

"That's for Susan to decide and since she's forgiven a hell of a lot already, I'm fairly sure you'll work through this one too," he told him in a voice that had both compassion and kindness in it.

"I scared her. She was scared of me," he whimpered. "She's never been scared of me before."

"You scared the hell out of me a couple of times, Shay, but I'm still here," Dar reminded him and something tight and hard inside of him eased a little. It was true, Darginian had seen sides of him that drove most people away and still stuck by him, was still his friend. The Doctor had seen the worst he was capable of and still forgave him. He held tight to that.

"I never wanted her to fear me," he sighed out and Dar shrugged.

"She's the Arkytior, Shay, and you're worried about _her_ being afraid of _you_? Have you ever considered that she might be a lot scarier than you are?" he suggested with a raised eyebrow and a small smirk.

It was a thought that took him by surprise. He'd not thought much about it, he realized. Susan was just Susan and that all by itself was more than enough for him. Just as she was she made his blood heat and his hearts melt. She was the golden sunshine that kept him warm; the laughing, brilliant, wonderful woman that he loved so much it scared him. She was the center of his being, as he was the center of hers and anything else was unnecessary and burdensome.

"No, I hadn't considered that," he admitted.

"I was there after they dragged Susan off to be imprisoned, you know, they were terrified of her," Dar told him, rubbing a hand over his head.

"Imprisoned? You mean when they took her to the Tower?" he burst out, what was Dar talking about?

"No, after you escaped, didn't she tell you?" Dar was looking at him in surprise and he shook his head. "She was called before the High Council; they wanted her Bound to one of Rassilon's lackeys as quick as possible."

"What?" Koschei jumped to his feet, suddenly both furious and horrified. They'd bound themselves accidently and that was bad enough, but that the High Council would sanction a mind rape?

"They knew she was Arkytior, thought that she could save them all, though Susan was smart enough to know what a stupid, foolish dream that was! She pointed out that the Arkytior was just as likely to obliterate them all as help." Dar was frowning at the images in his head and Koschei could just imagine his Susan standing there, defiant and strong, telling them where they could shove it all.

"Every legend shows that the Arkytior was a creature of rage and revenge, with no compassion or compunction," Koschei agreed.

"Yes, but Rassilon told them that the last of them, the third Arkytior, had been Bound and that her lover kept her in control, kept her from harming others and that, with a proper binding, it could be used to save them," Dar explained and Koschei shook his head in disbelief.

"And they really thought that raping her mind would lead to a docile Arkytior? What a bunch of idiots," he spat and Dar nodded.

"Yeah, but the Visionary spiked it all by telling them she was already bound. Two hundred years Susan had kept the secret and now it was all out in the open. Of course they ordered you found and killed, but by then you had already escaped."

"They didn't hurt her?" he asked, feeling that he had let her down so many times.

"Hurt her? She was spitting acid and venom at them!" he laughed. "That girl of yours was staring down Rassilon and the whole High Council and she was doing it to protect you. Two hundred years and she hid that she was married to you, hid what had happened between you, all to keep you from being killed. She could have been free of you, she could have gone off and married some nice Time Lord, but she stuck by you. She stuck by you when you were a crazy psychopath, may I point out," Dar continued. "So what makes you think she won't stick by you now that you're just a sarcastic git with a good heart and terrible guilt?"

"We'd shared a vision," he murmured. "She needed me to be alive to fulfill that vision, or the universe would end."

"And is it fulfilled?"

"Yes."

"And she's still standing by you?"

"Yes."

"You're an idiot."

"Yes."

"All right, let's go back to the flat and you can grovel for a while."

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

The Doctor woke to the rather pleasant sight of his wife suckling their newborn baby. Jenny was still a rather pink hairless blob, but she was an unutterably adorable little blob.

"Morning," he yawned and Rose turned and gave him a sweet smile, her face filled with the wonder and delight that new motherhood had brought her.

"She's so sweet," Rose gurgled and the Doctor grinned.

"Babies are wonderful, right until they learn to talk and walk, it's all downhill from there," he assured her and she shot him an amused glance.

"Love, I need a definition of a word that Susan used this morning. For some reason neither Malla nor the TARDIS would translate it for me," she told him and he sat up. He couldn't imagine what could be that awful.

"What's the word?"

"Ra-hari Aliisema," she repeated and he blanched.

"Where's Susan? Is she okay," he asked, while scrambling for clothes.

"She's in the zero room, meditating, she needs time alone," Rose forestalled him and he stilled. "Please, love, tell me what's going on."

"In our primitive past it sometimes occurred that a woman was married off to a man she didn't like. In such situations, the man has the option to go into the woman's mind and make her want to sleep with him anyway," the Doctor explained and watched as Rose's eyes went wide in consternation. "Honestly, it works both ways, the woman could do it too, but usually it was done to unwilling wives a lot more than it was done to unwilling husbands."

"How is it done?" Rose asked him and her voice was very calm.

"By going into the other person's mind and stimulating the parts of the brain associated with sexual desire. In the case of someone who is resisting, it can be a terribly destructive act. Between spouses who care for each other it can be a kind of fore-play, but it requires a huge level of trust and openness. In Susan's case, I suspect it felt rather like an attack," he sighed out.

"Why would he do something like that?" she asked next and he groaned. He really did not want to answer that question.

"During the year he had me as his prisoner, he used to use that ability on Lucy Saxon a lot. Several times he made her "perform" in front of me, just to humiliate her and to embarrass and horrify me. Even when she was starting to turn against him, she couldn't stop him from making her want him," he trailed off, seeing the shock in Rose's face. "He was falling completely apart by then, Rose, he didn't even have the control and discipline that he'd had before. I could see his mind splintering and I couldn't stop it. He wasn't even the elegant villain he'd been before." He shrugged, trying to explain something that he wasn't sure there were words for. He hadn't known about the bond between Susan and the Master, if he had, he might have understood better what was happening back then. He'd lost his wife, after all, his bonded and deeply connected wife and it was driving him insane. Well, more insane.

"He tortured that girl and then did the same thing to Susan?" she demanded and he scrubbed his head in his hands trying to find a way to explain.

"No, it wasn't the same, Lucy was being dominated by him, corrupted by him, Susan is someone he loves, that he's protective of," he protested.

"So, it's okay to invade someone's mind as long as you love them?" she bit out and he closed his eyes.

"It's never okay to invade someone's mind, but it probably wasn't intentional. It was a bad habit he got into and he probably just forgot himself for a moment." He was trying to defend his friend, but he also knew that much of what Koschei had done was indefensible.

"She said it was an accident and that he hadn't meant to. She was lying on the floor, shaking like a leaf and still protecting him," Rose sighed out, looking suddenly tired and sad.

"She loves him," he answered and shrugged. He loved him too, Koschei was like a brother to him and even after everything, he couldn't stop forgiving him, not when he saw daily how much he was struggling to heal, to be the man he really wanted to be, instead of the monster he'd been made into.

"Yeah, when he's not crazy, he's a pretty good person," Rose grumbled and he nodded. She shifted the baby to her other breast with a wince. "Hey, little girl, ease up on me!" she chided the baby who paid no attention and just latched onto the other breast with a single minded determination.

"Careful there, young lady," the Doctor muttered. "I'm going to want those back at some point!" The chuckle he received from Rose in response made him grin.

He slid off of the bed and went to go get dressed. One of them would need him soon, either Koschei or Susan.

* * *

Susan sat in the lovely Italian Piazza that her TARDIS had created for her and took deep even breaths.

Four hundred and eighty three years old, she thought to herself. All this time, I've been able to keep it in check. I can do it for another four hundred years, easy peasy.

After that, what then?

She took a deep breath. Let it out slowly. She opened her shields just the tiniest pinprick and felt the deep guilt and terrible self-recrimination her husband was struggling with and sighed. She knew he'd not intended harm and she sat there for a long moment trying not to think about how such an intrusion had come to be nearly second nature to him.

"I just wanted him out of my mind," the words still echoed in her memories. The dream she'd had of that girl, it rose up out of her memory and what had been a fuzzy recollection was suddenly clear to her. Lucy Saxon.

Susan stood up and left the Zero Room. She needed to have a long talk with her husband.

* * *

Andred and Leela were sitting in Regent's Park as they always had before, holding hands and just being themselves, a happily married couple, out on a fine day.

It was different though now. People would glance at them in surprise, take surreptitious photos, or just stand and stare. There were whispers and comments. Some people were kind, waving at them like they were old friends, others looked nervous or upset. Andred wasn't thrilled by it, but he wasn't entirely surprised.

"We're famous," Leela sighed out.

"We were stared at on Gallifrey too, love," he reminded her. Being the only mixed species married couple on the planet hadn't exactly been easy.

"Only for the first hundred years," she teased and he grinned down at her, his brown eyes crinkled in laughter. Her eyes were so blue, he sighed to himself, so beautiful, his Leela.

"I do love you so much," he murmured and she snuggled against him, allowing herself a moment of pure sentimental indulgence.

"Still rather fond of you too," she laughed and he draped an arm around her.

"I don't think we'll be able to sit in the park anymore," he told her with a touch of sorrow.

"No," she agreed. "We're still targets and it isn't safe for all of them to be around us," she replied, gesturing at the human park goers. He nodded, glad that they were thinking along the same lines.

"Let's go home, love," he suggested and stood up, offering her his arm.

He never after knew exactly what instinct prompted him to move, but he heard something out of place and threw himself on top of his wife, covering her with his body. The sudden blast wave, the heat that accompanied it, and the sound wave that hit after that, were incredible and he quickly lost consciousness.

* * *

At One Canada Square the sound of the blast was faint, but audible. Torchwood One personnel who monitored police bands, alerted the building and they were quickly mobilizing.

* * *

In Chelsea, the Doctor felt the sudden surge of alarm from Andred and changed direction from heading towards Susan and broke into a dead run out of the flat.

"Rose! Get in the TARDIS and guard the baby!" he shouted.

Behind him he heard Susan's feet and felt the spike of worry in her mind as she pounded along behind him.

* * *

In Cremorne Gardens, Koschei and Darginian both bolted upright and began running.

"Dar?" Geneva came running, hand to her ear. "There's been an explosion in Regent's Park!"

"Andred!" Koschei cried out, not slowing.

"He's been hurt!" Dar continued and wrenched open the door to the sedan.

They all piled in and Dar drove like a Dalek Fleet was bearing down on them.

* * *

Leela couldn't hear anything except the ringing in her ears. She couldn't see anything except golden light. Looking up, she squinted and realized that Andred was on top of her, he was unconscious, and he was regenerating.

She struggled frantically to get out from under him, but she was securely pinned by not only her husband's body, but also rubble and debris from the blast. He'd thrown himself on top of her to protect her from the explosion.

The irony was that he was about to burn her up with his regeneration energy.

He was never going to forgive himself, she knew, so she struggled harder and started shouting, though she couldn't hear herself at all.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – What Not to Put In a Trap

Susan reached Regent's Park with her grandfather first and they were already dashing forward, when a cop tried to block their way.

"You can't go in there! There's a strange glow, it could be radioactive!" They were past him before he realized it, dodging his arms, completely single-minded in their determination to get to Andred.

"He's regenerating!" Susan cried.

"We've got to clear people out!" he answered and they saw where the police and fire fighters were trying to clear the rubble around the glowing form of Andred.

"Get him off of me!" Leela was shouting. They exchanged glances and split up; Grandfather to the rubble, and Susan to Leela.

"Leela!" she cried and fell on her knees beside her, grabbing her under the arms and starting to pull.

"Hey! Stop that! She could have a spinal injury!" an EMT shouted at her.

"She'll have worse than that, if she isn't away from him before he fully regenerates!" she shouted back. "He's going to burn up in about a minute and a half and anyone touching him will burn too!" The young man looked at her in sudden horror and then bent over to help her haul on Leela.

Her grandfather pried Andred up, using his greater strength to lift him out of the way.

Together Susan and the EMT got Leela free and Grandfather lowered him back down and started clearing the rubble off of him, while waving back the cops.

"Grandfather!" she shouted, seeing the telltale fluctuation in energy starting to cycle up, and he jumped back, just as the golden light exploded out of Andred.

His body shifted and changed, growing leaner, his face altered, becoming square and with a wider jawline, and then he opened eyes that were suddenly blue and looked around in confusion.

"Leela?"

"Andred!" she cried and crawled over to hug him hard. Her grandfather met her eyes in relief and then went to talk to the police and the Torchwood agents that were showing up. Andred was drinking in the sight of his wife, making his attachment to her stronger, by having her be the first person he saw with his new eyes.

Susan whipped out her medical scanner and ran it over him, frowning. She scanned Leela too and nodded.

"Leela's fine, Andred, just a couple scratches and some temporary deafness," she informed him. "I need to get you to the Zero Room though; transitioning while unconscious is always a problem."

"What just happened?" the EMT who'd helped her before, was staring at Andred in bafflement and Susan smiled at him. Andred now had very dark brown hair, a square strong face, that dimpled when he smiled back at her, and those bright blue eyes that were similar in shade to Leela's.

"My people have this neat little trick we can do when we're near death, we can literally rebuild our bodies from the ground up," she explained and he nodded, looking stunned.

"Hurts like hell, though," Andred admitted wryly and rubbed his new face.

"Better than the alternative," the fireman assured him and Andred nodded in agreement.

"So, how bad is it?" he asked and looked at Leela.

"Actually, I think you came out looking pretty good," Susan told him, and Leela, still deaf, just hugged him again. "I don't think she cares what you look like, as long as you're okay."

"Let's get him back to the TARDIS," Grandfather said as he came forward. "What's your name?" he asked the EMT.

"Hastings, sir," he answered and her grandfather smiled at him.

"Hastings, would you be so good as to get us a stretcher and an ambulance, Andred over there is going to be collapsing pretty soon, and we need to get him someplace he can finish regenerating in peace."

"Sure thing," Hastings replied and went off to do as he was told. The sound of running feet caught her attention and she turned, feeling her husband's approach.

"Susan!" Koschei called to her, sounding rather frantic.

She turned and opened her arms to him without a thought and he grabbed her tightly against him, his repentance palpable. She still needed to have a serious talk with him and soon, but their problems needed to put aside for a bit to deal with the present emergency.

"I'm so sorry!" he started and she kissed him, stoppering up his words. His mouth, his hands, the warmth of his body, it was so easy to just fall into him and forget everything else. She pulled back with reluctance.

"We'll talk later, right now you lot need to figure out who bombed Regent's Park, while I take care of Andred," she informed him, wishing she could forgo the emergencies for a while and just spend time with him. "I love you, by the way, even if you are thick as a brick," she added tartly and he grinned at her, relieved.

"I love you too, take good care of him." He tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear with infinite tenderness and she kissed him swiftly again, before running to where Andred was being loaded on a gurney. She forced her mind off of her husband and onto her scanner. She was monitoring Andred's vitals and not liking what she saw.

"He's going to need tannins," she muttered and Hastings blinked at her in surprise.

"I have a thermos of tea," he suggested and she smiled at him.

"Brilliant! Just what we need!" she told him and soon she was in an ambulance with Hastings, Andred, Leela, and Hasting's partner Flores. It was a tight fit, but the two of them were both trying to see what she was doing and she was explaining Time Lord physiology to them on the fly, while the driver ran the siren and several red lights.

Her cellphone rang and she checked it to see that the call was from Rose.

"The Doctor told me to fly the TARDIS to hospital and meet you there," she told Susan.

"Fantastic, I'll see you there. Tell her to move the Zero Room to the front so we don't have to lug him too far, okay?"

"Already done."

"Brilliant."

They reached the hospital with no further problems and Hastings and Flores were both amenable to rolling the gurney into what looked like a surgical bay.

It took a bit of explaining after that.

* * *

The Doctor walked up behind Koschei and clipped him on the head.

"Idiot!" he growled and the other man simply nodded.

"So I have been informed by several people today," he admitted with a sheepish look over at where Dar and Geneva were already checking the area and looking for clues.

"Were you properly chastised?" he chuckled and Koschei sighed out.

"Can I just shoot myself and be done with it? Maybe I'll regenerate into someone with a clue," he joked and the Doctor grinned at his oldest and dearest friend.

"Why? Never worked before," he chuckled.

* * *

Darginian frowned down at the blast's debris and shook his head in amazement. All the ingenuity that humans had and this is what they chose to use it on, never failed to amaze him.

"Cell phone activated," Geneva muttered, turning over the pieces with a pair of tweezers.

"Could have been sent from anywhere, but we might get a ping off of a cell tower," he answered and she nodded.

"Dar, you haven't flirted with me in over two hours, that has to be a record," she commented and he shot her a swift startled look. Her eyes on his were far too perceptive for his own good and he shook his head.

"New policy, no harassment of female staff allowed, from now on I will only flirt with the male staff," he teased and she gave him a long thoughtful look and then nodded.

"I see," she answered and he was rather afraid that she did, in fact, see.

* * *

"So, you're a Doctor?" Hastings asked her and Flores cocked her head, listening intently as well. Rose, with Jenny in a sling across her chest, passed a cup of tea to Susan and sat down.

Andred had been stabilized and tucked into the zero room and they were drinking tea and eating biscuits, just waiting for him to recover. Leela had gone in to be with him and Susan hadn't dared suggest that she might be more comfortable elsewhere. The look on the other woman's face had been immovable.

They were sitting in the TARDIS's kitchen, which had been recently reworked into an English cottage style with slate floors, chintz patterns on the linens and floral wallpaper. Susan wasn't quite sure about it, but the stove and ovens were definitely an improvement on the previous set up, which had been ultra-modern with nothing but a microwave.

"Yes, I trained for twenty years at the Academy on Gallifrey, got several PhD's, and then was a practicing physician for a hundred and seventy-five years," she informed them, relaxing in the ladder back wooden chair and sipping her tea.

"You must know so much!" Flores wailed her dark eyes filled with longing. "Things we haven't even dreamed of! You have to share that with us!"

"Well, I was training Doctor Arthur Davis in Gallifreyan medicine, but he was badly injured in the attack," she sighed. "I want to share it all, but after that, I'm scared that anyone I try to train will end up being killed by terrorists."

"Take us!" Hastings volunteered and Flores nodded vigorously.

"All the lives we could save would be so worth it!" she agreed.

"It's not that simple, you two!" she laughed. "I'm trying to clone another generation of Gallifreyans, help rebuild my planet, get Arthur back on his feet, and spend at least some time with my poor husband," she explained.

"Fine, we'll help! Even just being lab assistants for you will probably teach us more than years of medical school," Flores insisted, her face filled with determination. Susan leaned back in her chair and studied them. The two EMTs were young, intelligent, and dedicated; they'd been cool under fire and had taken to the weirdness of the TARDIS with a minimum of fuss.

"Tell you what, you pass UNITs background check and I will be happy to have the two of you," she told them and they both grinned broadly.

"Done!" Hastings agreed. His expression changed and he frowned. "To be equitable though, there must be hundreds of people who would love to learn from you, we should probably have other people apply as well, it's not fair if we get this opportunity just because we were on call today," he mused and Susan was struck by the generosity of his thinking.

"Good point, I'll see if, in addition to you two, I can convince Pete to take applications for at least four more people. I _could_ really use the help, honestly," she suggested and Hastings' face lit up again.

"That sounds reasonable," he informed her and she smiled. She liked this young man already.

* * *

The Doctor was looking around the park, studying the debris and watching the police, EMTs, and fire fighters working and Koschei was finding that his own awareness was divided between the mystery of the bombing and the happy knowledge that Susan still loved him. She'd kissed him with bone-melting thoroughness and left him in no doubt of her affection for him and now he was feeling nearly done in from the emotional roller coaster he'd been on that day. Still, the bombing was peculiar.

"Watson, my good fellow," he called over to the Doctor. "Does anything seem off to you?"

"I don't know, my dear Holmes," the Doctor grinned back at him. "Besides the fact that the blast wasn't large enough to kill a Time Lord permanently?"

"No, I meant the fact that the charges were set to take out this bench in particular, the one that Andred and Leela usually come to sit on. If the bombers knew enough about them to know where they sit each time, why didn't they put the bomb under the bench itself? Why against that tree there, where much of the blast would get dispersed?" he asked.

"They weren't trying to kill them outright?" the Doctor mused and their eyes met in sudden comprehension.

"Oh, bugger," he swore. "Dar! Clear the area!" Koschei shouted and began running for the knot of police and fire fighters who were standing right in the middle of the first blast zone.

* * *

The Doctor felt as though a hammer struck the ground nearby and he was knocked off of his feet, landing in an untidy pile on the grass. He saw Koschei flying backwards and he threw himself forward, stopping the other man's decent with his own body. The air was knocked out of him and his bypass respiratory system kicked in. Gulping for air, he gently rolled the unconscious Time Lord off of him and checked his pulse.

Alive. Thank the stars. He was so damn glad he wasn't going to have to tell Susan her husband was dead. He wasn't sure he could face that.

People were running and there was the acrid smell of blood and smoke in the air. Darginian's face materialized next to him and he hauled the Doctor to his feet and then hoisted Koschei in his arms and took off running. Geneva, her hair falling down and her face covered in dirt and soot was running alongside him, gun out, and eyes scanning for targets.

He was in shock, the Doctor realized. He wasn't really thinking, just following Dar and Geneva with a blind faith that they knew what they were doing.

It had been a trap. They'd killed Andred, or at least that body, in order to lure as many of the other Time Lords as they could to the area and then kill them as well.

But had they waited for Susan to leave with Andred, or had they not been able to activate the second device before she left? Was it on a timer? Was it just luck that she was gone already?

Dar put Koschei into the back of a black sedan and then they were all pilling in and peeling out of the parking lot and Dar was driving like a mad man.

"Where's Susan?" the ex-CIA agent asked.

"Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Rose took the TARDIS there to take care of Andred," he answered and Dar hauled the car around a corner and took off.

Ten minutes later they were running up the sidewalk to the glass and cement fronted hospital and the Doctor was wondering how many laws both of traffic and of physics Dar had broken to manage that.

Dar swept up Koschei, who was still unconscious, and carried him at a run towards the TARDIS.

* * *

Susan felt the sudden spike of fear in her husband's mind and jumped to her feet, knocking her tea cup over and causing her chair to clatter backwards onto the floor.

"Shay!" she cried, as she felt his sudden agony in her own body, and felt him losing consciousness.

"Susan? What's wrong?" Rose asked her, as she bent over double in pain, gasping.

"Something's happened at the Park! Koschei's hurt!" she cried and staggered from the kitchen, heading for the console room.

"Wait! Susan, the Doctor knows where we are, they'll bring him here, get the med-bay prepped and just wait a few minutes," Rose was holding her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes with concern and Susan paused. Rose made sense, Grandfather would bring him to her. She just had to wait.

She nodded and then turned and looked at the EMTs.

"I think another bomb might have gone off, you two may be needed down there," she told them and they dropped their cups and ran for the door.

"Another bomb?" Rose was suddenly looking worried, so Susan closed her eyes and reached out, even if it was hard to think about anything but Koschei.

"Grandfather is shaken up, but unhurt, as far as I can tell," Susan reassured her. "I can feel another Time Lord mind with him, I think it's Dar, but I don't know his mind well enough to be sure."

"You've known him for over eight months," Rose commented with an arched eyebrow.

"After all that I have gone through, I find it… difficult… to touch another mind," Susan admitted and she could see the subtle shifting of energy that indicated Malla was moving forward, helping Rose to understand things.

"I'm so sorry," Rose murmured and suddenly grabbed her tightly and hugged her. Susan leaned into the infinite compassion and sweetness that characterized her grandfather's wife and hugged her back.

She felt the arrival of the others outside the hospital and broke the embrace.

"They're almost here, let's go!" she cried and the two women raced for the med-bay.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Bunker Mentality

Dar carried his friend into the TARDIS and straight through to the med-bay, where Susan was already waiting by an empty bed. Her face was composed, but he could see the worry in her eyes. Of course, he realized, she must have felt Koschei go down, as tightly wrapped up as they were. He felt stupid for not having thought of it, he should have had Geneva call and reassure her.

Geneva was on his heels and only now was holstering her gun. She was filthy, covered in blood and dirt, smoke and soot, yet she was still sharply professional, efficient and solid beside him. He was coming to depend on her and that worried him. He forced her out of his awareness and focused on his injured friend.

Susan was scanning him and running diagnostic programs with quick efficiency, but her hands were trembling slightly and he could sense the tightly controlled fear in her. Her mind was like iron though, her discipline as rigid and her defenses as formidable as any CIA field agent. In that moment, he really hated Rassilon and the High Council more than he'd thought possible. He wondered what she had been like before they had gone into her head and laid waste.

Koschei stirred and groaned, his eyes opening with obvious discomfort. He looked up into Susan's face and gave her a cheeky grin.

"Sorry, but you're still stuck with me, better luck next time," he murmured to his wife, who rolled her eyes at him.

"It's a pity I'm such a good doctor, but I'll get over my disappointment," she shot back and the sarcasm of their exchange was ruined by the way his fingers were gripping hers and the tears she was blinking back from her eyes.

"If those terrorists weren't such rubbish, you might have managed to get rid of me," he teased, but she shook her head and didn't come back with a joke this time, just turning to get more equipment and start in on healing his injuries. His eyes following her were tortured and Dar felt suddenly like he was witnessing something intensely personal.

It occurred to him that the sarcasm and jokes were all that protected them from the sheer enormity of what they were to each other. To care that much, to need each other the way that they obviously did, to be that wrapped around each other's souls, it had to be excruciating at times, especially when they were both such independent people. The only defense they had against the raw emotions that bound them up was the distance of humor and right then, even that was failing.

He grabbed Geneva and stepped out, gesturing to the Doctor and Rose as well. They all left the room and Dar felt as though his own hearts were hurting as well. What Susan and Koschei had together was too much for him, he knew he couldn't bear the searing intimacy of that relationship, but oh Stars, how he envied them the love they shared.

"You alright?" Geneva asked him with a frown. She was looking at him as though she could read every thought in his head and he shrugged.

"I'm always all right," he quipped and the Doctor looked at him in surprise and concern.

"Of course you are," Geneva responded and her disbelief was tangible.

"I spent a hundred and eighty years watching over that guy, he was my responsibility, and he became my friend, you will please forgive me if I was a bit worried there for a moment," he grumbled and she ducked her head in apology.

"Sorry, I forgot that you two had a history," she answered, her eyes going thoughtful and he knew that she was cataloguing things about him. It ought to make him nervous, but he trusted her, so he found it comforting instead.

"You know, it's interesting, I was his friend before he was driven mad, but you never knew him before, how did you two end up as mates?" the Doctor asked, scratching his head and looking at Dar with an expression of genuine interest and fascination.

"There were at least three occasions where he could have easily killed me, or simply left me for dead, yet he didn't. There were two occasions where I could have let him die and I found that I couldn't," he shrugged. "There is just something about him. He's brilliant, funny, erudite, and knowledgeable on almost every subject. You know, even when he was doing something horrible, he never did it with enjoyment, just with a sort of ruthless pragmatism. He wasn't a sadist, he was just… the Master." He ran out of words, shrugging helplessly at the Doctor, who simply smiled back with a rather rueful expression.

"I know, he gets under your skin and you find yourself forgiving even his worst excesses," the Doctor admitted.

"He's frankly just too damn charming to hate," Dar grumbled and the Doctor laughed in agreement. "I wanted to, Stars know I did, but he gives you this amused look and says something funny, brilliant, and incredibly insightful, and you can't help but admire him."

"So, you're telling me you both have man crushes on him?" Rose teased and the two Time Lords burst out laughing, while Geneva leaned against the door, arms crossed, listening carefully.

"I suppose so," the Doctor chuckled. "He's my best mate, what can I say?" Dar just nodded, he would probably never understand why he liked a guy who he'd watched wrenching the control circuits out of a Dalek slave's head without concern for the life he'd just taken, but he did.

"It makes no sense, but there it is," Dar finally answered.

"No," Geneva answered, shaking her head. "It makes perfect sense. Even through the insanity and all that was done to him, he still never lost himself completely; he still retained his humanity, his soul. There's a lot to admire in that," she commented and Dar nodded, she'd hit the nail on the head. You could always feel the underlying decency that was Koschei, even in the moments of megalomania or psychopathy.

"He held on to it, up until the point that he lost Susan, and then he fell apart," the Doctor murmured, looking at the closed door to the medi-lab. "After he thought she was dead, he just … broke." The pain and sorrow in the Doctor's voice, the way that his eyes seemed suddenly too old and too filled with darkness, made Dar very glad that he hadn't been there to see Koschei that way.

"We should get the TARDIS back home, stop blocking up traffic at the hospital," Rose suggested and they all went to the console room, leaving the Master and his Arkytior alone together.

* * *

Susan worked silently to clean his wounds and heal them up, suppressing her own awareness of his pain as best she could. He was watching her and she could feel his gaze on her as a physical weight.

"Talk to me," he finally demanded, grabbing her hand and stilling her work on him. She looked up at him and saw the rich blue of his eyes, the tenderness and warmth in them, and burst into tears. He sat up and pulled her onto his lap, wrapping her up and holding her close, cradling her like she was a small child in need of comfort.

He just held her as she cried, and she was holding him just as tightly. She was trying to pull herself together, but too much had happened and she just couldn't.

* * *

"I'm so sorry, love, I'm so sorry, I didn't ever want to make you cry," he sighed out, feeling awful for worrying her like this, and she hugged him hard and then took a few gasping breaths to compose herself.

"Then you don't think I love you very much, do you?" she asked, sniffling still and he looked at her in surprise.

"What?"

"Oh my darling idiot, you haven't thought this marriage thing through very well, have you," she chuckled damply. "If you get hurt and I don't get upset, then I must not care very much. If you really want me to love you, you are going to have to accept that you're going to make me cry, probably an awful lot, considering how jeopardy friendly you are in this body!" she explained to him and his lips curled up in rueful acknowledgement of her words.

"I suppose that's true," he admitted. He kissed her and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. "But you really shouldn't cry, love, your face gets all red and blotchy, it's the coloring from being a ginger, probably, but it's just not…" he was stopped from saying anything further by the ginger in question shoving him back on the bed and straddling him.

"Look where my hands are, husband, and then think about the wisdom of finishing that sentence," she informed him with a scowl.

"I like where your hands are," he grinned and she rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Are you going to beat me now? Don't we have better things to do?" he teased, recalling a dream he'd had about her nearly two hundred years ago. He was alerted that something was wrong by the sudden stillness. Looking up into her eyes he saw the look of befuddled confusion. "What?"

"I was never going to mention this to you, for fear your already huge ego would swell to gigantic proportions," she told him with a shy smile. "But I had these dreams about you," she admitted and now it was his turn to feel confused. He sat up, scooting back against the headboard so he could listen to her properly.

"Yeah?" he prompted, since she was now blushing and looking delightfully embarrassed.

"Well, in the first one, you pulled my hair and I said that to you, about the beating." Her voice had dropped nearly to a whisper and he had to strain to hear it. He closed his eyes in disbelief.

"I thought it was just a dream," he protested and she shivered on his lap.

"What?"

"I had that dream, it was nearly six weeks after they'd dragged me away from you in the tower," he confessed and opened his eyes to see her staring at him in shock.

"Five weeks, four days, thirteen hours," she whispered and he pulled her against him, crushing his mouth against hers, suddenly needing to feel her underneath him with an ache that went through to his bones. He turned and pressed her into the mattress, hands and mouth moving over her, not caring about his newly healed injuries, just wanting her, right that moment.

She wrapped her arms around him, a leg tucked over his, her mouth hot and frantic as she responded with equal desperation. Clothes were shed with haste and little dignity and neither one cared. His mouth was dry from wanting her so badly and soon he was burying his fears, his questions, his confusions, losing himself in her, and then falling back down into the circle of her arms, tears on his face and hers. He buried his head in her neck, trying to understand and finding nothing that made sense.

She was drifting into sleep, tangled in his arms, and he reached for a blanket, dragging it over them, before he started to succumb as well.

They'd been just dreams, he thought as he fell asleep. That was all. There was no way that they'd reached across time and space and made love to each other, it simply wasn't possible.

* * *

The Doctor stepped out of Susan's TARDIS warily. Dar and Geneva began doing a circuit, checking the flat to see if it was safe. After their all clear, they moved into the rest of the house and began packing.

The phone rang and they all jumped. The Doctor answered it.

"Hello?"

"Doctor?" Pete's voice sounded relieved. "Is everyone alright?"

"Pete," he sighed out and the others relaxed and went back to packing. "Andred is doing all right; he's in the Zero Room with Leela, finishing up his regeneration. Koschei is fine; Susan's caring for him right now. None of the rest of us was injured. How about the first responders?" he asked.

"We lost two more agents and three policemen, about fifteen more were injured," he reported and the Doctor winced at the butcher's bill.

"All we wanted to do was help," he whispered and Pete sighed on the other end of the line.

"It's a really small group of people, from what we've been able to figure out," Pete tried to console him. "The majority of Earth is really excited and happy to have you all here."

"Geneva and Dar are with us, they've suggested that we pack up everything and get back to Gallifrey, at least until these terrorists are dealt with. I think I'll take the family on a little trip until things settle down. Give you time to work while also removing the targets from play," he informed his father in law.

"That sounds like a good plan, but make sure to answer your phone in case there are any developments, okay?" Pete reminded him and the Doctor chuckled.

"Will do, Pete." Rose gestured for the phone. "Hold on, Rose wants to talk to you."

"Dad?" Rose took the phone from him. "Yeah, there were two EMTs here earlier, Flores and Hastings, they suggested that Susan needed at least six lab techs, medical students, or some such to help her out and make things go more smoothly. They volunteered and Susan said that if they passed a background test, she'd take them on. But do you think that either you, or UNIT could start working on that?" she told him and the Doctor raised an eyebrow. It did make sense; Susan couldn't clone a whole race by herself after all. "Great! Thanks, Dad!" she chirped and rang off.

"So, more inmates for the asylum?" Dar asked dryly.

"Yes, we have tons of engineers, physicists, and one spy," Rose teased him. "But we have a sad lack of doctors."

"Yes, mother was a bit one sided in her recruitment wasn't she," the Doctor sighed.

"Yes, well, I volunteered, which is why I'm here, she had to strong arm the rest of them," he grumbled.

"You volunteered? How did I miss this story?" the Doctor mused and put the meager contents of the refrigerator into a box and then grabbed the tinned food from the cupboards.

"Well, Koschei had told me that only the Lady Professor had listened to him at all when he'd told the High Council it was hopeless. When he vanished, I figured it was time to vamoose myself, so I took myself back to Gallifrey. After I heard what the Council was planning to do to Susan I took myself straight to the Lady Professor and offered my services in breaking Susan out of jail."

"Susan was in jail?" the Doctor asked, his full attention suddenly riveted on Dar.

"She didn't tell _any_ of you?" he asked with an exasperated look. "Rassilon was going to have her forcibly bonded so he could try to turn her into the Arkytior and use her to destroy the Daleks."

"She was already married to Koschei," he pointed out, trying not to explode and start raining fiery death at the very thought of what that would have meant for Susan.

"No one knew that, they had kept that a complete secret for two hundred years," he reminded the Doctor.

"Wait," Geneva waved a hand. "They were secretly married or whatever for two hundred years and no one figured it out?"

"It's not like a marriage bond is visible to the naked eye, Geneva," Dar chuckled. "I knew something was up on the Cruciform, the way his head whipped around when she walked by was pretty obvious, but that could have been pure lust, after all."

"They still do that," the Doctor pointed out. "It's a bit of a giveaway."

"But they were actually physically separate for all that time," Dar reminded him. "Had they been in the same room together it might have become obvious to everyone, the way it is to us now, but they were kept strictly isolated from each other."

"How utterly agonizing that must have been," the Doctor murmured and glanced over at Rose with a look of remembered sorrow.

"Let's finish packing," Geneva suggested. "The longer we're here, the more danger we're in."

Dar started and it occurred to him that he would be upset if anything happened to Geneva.

He needed to find a Time Lady of his own, someone he could settle down with and start a family. He was obviously just way too lonely if he was starting to obsess over this woman. It needed to stop.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Running Away

Susan woke and found that she was pinned under Koschei's arm. Normally, she wouldn't mind that, except that she needed to get to the loo with a certain degree of urgency. She kissed the tip of his nose and he mumbled sleepily. She suppressed a laugh at the absurdity of the situation and wriggled free of him, letting him grumble and fall back into sleep.

She went to solve her most pressing problem, and then quickly showered. Her TARDIS kindly provided her with some clean clothes and she stroked the wall affectionately in thanks.

"Susan?" Koschei's voice was strained and nervous and she darted back into the med-bay and was back in his arms in a moment.

"I'm right here, love," she murmured and he held her very tightly for a moment, before releasing her with a rueful shake of his head.

"Damn but I'm pathetic," he complained and she grinned at him, admiring the way the light played over the planes and hollows of his face and how the deep blue of his eyes seemed to spark and shine in the room's white light.

"Yeah, but I love you anyway," she consoled him.

"You'll pay for that!" he teased and pulled her down for a kiss, but she laughed and wriggled free.

"Oh no you don't! I've just showered and you are filthy! Get clean and let's go see what Grandfather has gotten up to while we weren't there to keep an eye on him!" she scolded and he dropped his chin, looking up at her with a wicked smile that set her hearts fluttering. He was naked on the bed, gorgeous, obviously interested, and he looked damn near irresistible.

"Is that really what you want?" he asked and his voice was doing something to her; she was breathless and very definitely wavering, when Rose came in with a breakfast tray.

"Oh God, Koschei! Put it away!" Rose snarked at him and Susan was amused to see him get flustered and start to blush, as he scrambled for the sheets to cover himself up.

"Doesn't anyone around here know how to knock?" he groused, but his ears were still pink.

Susan took the opportunity to escape, fanning herself as she went. Damn but it was unfair for him to be that beautiful. How was she ever supposed to get anything done?

* * *

Koschei took the tray from Rose and caught her grinning at him.

"What?" he asked, still a trifle ruffled.

"Time Lord men, you none of you seem to have an 'off' switch," she chuckled and he barked a laugh.

"Well, my biology professor, who was the most uninspiring woman I have ever had talk to me about sex, by the way, ugly as sin and boring like you would not believe, informed us that the low fertility rates of Time Ladies had made the sex drives in the males much higher in compensation." He suddenly realized what he was saying and to whom and blushed bright scarlet. Rose however was cocking her head to the side and looking thoughtful, but not at all embarrassed.

"That makes a lot of sense, actually," she mused and then noticed how uncomfortable he was and grinned. "Oh please, I'm married and have had a baby, there is very little left in this universe that can embarrass me. Your wife was poking her hands around in my uterus, after all," she reminded him and now it was Koschei's turn to laugh.

"Time Lord society has always been rather, um… prissy, if you will," he explained. "There are some things one simply does not speak of," he continued, mimicking his Great Aunt's refined and snobby accent and Rose chuckled. "So, it's not exactly second nature to us to discuss intimate biological issues." He shrugged and she gave him the tongue in teeth grin. He was finding, to his surprise, that he was actually feeling comfortable around her. There weren't that many people he didn't feel awkward with.

"You know, when I first met you I wasn't really sure, but I've decided that I like you, and I'm really glad that you are there to watch out for Theta," he admitted and she grinned even wider.

"Yeah, you're not so bad either, when you aren't being a git," she conceded, which made him laugh, and still grinning, she left him to eat and get dressed.

A quick shower and a change of clothes and he was soon in the console room, feeling far better than he should have for being nearly blown up yesterday. His wife was a damn fine doctor, among other things that she was damn fine at, he thought with a smirk, eyeing her as she leaned across the console to flip a switch, admiring the curve of her breasts and the swell of her hips.

The Doctor glanced up at him and then rolled his eyes.

"Please stop having impure thoughts about my granddaughter, when I'm standing right here," he griped and Koschei turned to where Susan was now working the plotter and leered at her, while pretending to twirl a nonexistent mustache. She shot him a look of long suffering in response.

"But my dear Doctor, I am the villain of the piece, after all," he teased. "It's in my job description to despoil maidens." Dar burst out laughing and Geneva shook her head in disbelief, while Rose snickered and Susan arched an eyebrow at him.

"Who're you calling a maiden, sirrah?" she shot back with asperity. "I seem to recall doing plenty of despoiling as well, in case you've forgotten!"

"Yes, thank you for that mental image, Susan, I must now erase that entire conversation from my memory," the Doctor grumbled, but his lips were twitching.

"Arrival on Gallifrey," Susan chuckled and threw the materialization circuit open.

"Hello all," Andred called out as he stepped into the console room, Leela on his heels. Susan immediately went to scan him thoroughly, much to his amusement.

"Oh well done, Andred, you're in great shape!" she told him with a smile.

"Isn't he just," Leela purred and the Doctor dropped his head down on the console and groaned.

"Can we just get through the rest of the day without any more innuendos?" he requested and the two other married couples simply shook their heads.

"Not going to happen," Rose informed him with a cheeky grin and he threw up his hands in surrender.

* * *

Susan walked into the lab with a sigh.

"It's not that bad," Rose assured her and she nodded.

"It's not the damage, Rose, it's the memories. Eddy and Matilda have gone home with their new families, thank heaven, but the other ten are gone and, without Arthur here, it just seems so futile." She turned and looked up at the repaired, but empty, artificial wombs, thinking about the children that should have been there, growing and living.

Rose, in loose trousers and a nursing t-shirt, was bouncing Jenny in her arms while the baby yawned and squirmed and Susan had a sudden stab of grief and envy, which she forced back down with ruthless dispatch. Rose however, still had Malla's empathic gifts and she looked at Susan in surprise.

"Why haven't you started on your own family, Susan?" she asked softly and Susan crossed her arms protectively over her chest.

"I can't," she admitted. "This regeneration didn't go well at all, I can't carry to term, not as I am."

"Oh Susan, I'm so sorry," Rose pulled her into a one armed embrace, since her other arm was already filled with Jenny. Susan rested her head on her shoulder and sighed out, looking into the baby's unfocused blue eyes.

"Nap," Jenny told her, just mature enough now to start broadcasting basic thoughts, but not enough to really work out complex concepts.

"Yeah, that does sound nice," she answered and Rose smiled down at the baby.

"You first, Jenny," she suggested, but the baby simply wriggled more vigorously. "Speaking 'baby' is a pretty convenient Time Lord thing, I must say." Rose sounded somewhat smug as she said that and Susan smiled, straightening and nodding.

"I'm all right," she sighed. "It's just that I've waited so long, I feel like I've spent most of my life waiting for one thing or another and finding out that I'm going to have to wait some more just seems so unfair."

"True, but it might not be such a bad thing, in the long run," Rose suggested and Susan looked at her in interest. "Koschei's a good man, but has he ever been around children before, does he even have a clue as to how to be a father?" Rose paused to let Susan mull that over for a while.

"No, I don't think he does," she answered slowly.

"Then maybe easing into this might be the wiser course. Let him be around Jenny and the other children for a while, get him used to what they entail." She paused again and looked out the window for a moment, as though she was sorting through her thoughts, looking for the right words. "Susan, he's waited two hundred years to have time with you. You both need time to be just the two of you together, so let yourselves have that for a while. You have centuries ahead of you to have kids, to raise a family, but this time alone may be the only chance you have to really heal each other."

Susan studied her grandfather's wife for a long moment and nodded slowly.

"How could Grandfather not have fallen in love with you, Rose? You are brilliant, just amazing," she told her and watched Rose grin and look a bit abashed.

"It's always easy to see things when you're on the outside of them, it's when you're knee deep that it's hard!" she laughed, waving off the praise.

"Yeah, but most people don't even look at all," Susan disagreed.

"Hello? Is this the medical laboratory?" a woman's voice called out and Rose turned and looked at her in pleased surprise.

"Martha Jones?" she asked with a huge smile and the young woman in the doorway blinked, seeming rather startled, and nodded. She was extraordinarily pretty, with a pointed chin, high cheekbones and winged brows. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing scrubs with a white lab coat.

"I'm sorry, you're Rose Tyler, right?" the dark skinned girl enquired with a puzzled look.

"Yes, I am, this is Doctor Susan Campbell, she's in charge here. I'm just visiting," Rose waved Susan forward and she stepped over to shake hands. The stranger's hands were strong and the handshake firm and looking into her earnest brown eyes, Susan recalled images from her grandfather's mind. This woman, in the other universe, had been one of his companions.

"Did Pete send you?" she asked and the woman shook her head.

"No, UNIT sent me over with about a half dozen others, they're still being processed, so I thought I would come ahead and look around." Curiosity, interest, intelligence, the young woman radiated all of them and Susan was pleased. "I'm Doctor Martha Jones, just finished my residency at Royal Hope Hospital," she informed them. "I have excellent references, if you want to see them?"

"I have every faith in UNIT to have found me the best possible people," Susan assured the nervous young woman and waved her into the room. Rose grinned and signaled her farewell, giving Susan a thumbs-up, when Martha's back was turned. "I'll wait for the rest of the group to get here before I start explaining everything, but in the meantime, did you have any questions?"

"Well, yeah, a few, I guess. I mean, I read all of Sarah Jane Smith's articles, but I don't quite understand a few things," she paused and looked at Susan, as though she wasn't sure quite how much leeway she had.

"I will be happy to answer any questions you might have, as long as I don't feel it violates my personal privacy, all right?" she told the other woman, who relaxed a bit and gave her a tentative smile.

"That's more than fair," Dr. Jones agreed. "We're here to help you clone new members of your species, but how many will there be and where will they all live?"

"Excellent questions, both of them!" Susan chuckled. "I'm planning on starting in small batches. Finding families willing to help raise alien children wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, humans are wonderfully generous and kind and we've had literally thousands of volunteers. But, there is a lot about being Gallifreyan that will need to be taught to them by us, things like controlling their telepathy and not reading the minds of those around them without permission," she explained and Dr. Jones nodded her understanding, though an eyebrow went up at the word telepathy.

"Hello!" Grandfather strolled in and grinned at Martha who smiled right back at him. Some things held true in any universe, Susan thought with a sigh.

"Hello, Grandfather," she called back. "Your wife just left five minutes ago," she told him, more for Dr. Jones' benefit than for his and his eyes met hers in shared amusement and understanding.

"Grandfather?" Dr. Jones gasped in surprise and he nodded with a smile.

"I'm over nine hundred years old, Martha Jones, though I think I look pretty good for my age," he told her, preening a bit and Susan laughed.

"Go on, you peacock, go display your plumage for someone who cares!" she shooed him off and he grinned and bounced out.

"That was your _grandfather_?" she asked, still unable to take it in, and Susan nodded.

"Yeah, I'm nearly five hundred years old myself, mind you, so don't judge us by how we look, because the youngest of us is three hundred just now. Well, except for the babies, of course, they all actually look their ages."

"All right then," Dr. Jones marveled.

"So, as I was saying, I am only planning on cloning about five thousand people and I plan to stretch that out over at least two hundred years, so only about twenty-five each year. After that, we ought to have both a viable gene pool and also a fully trained genetics team who can take over for me, so I can go back to just being a doctor again."

"Just being a doctor, again? Aren't you one now?"

"Not really, I was a proper doctor before, with a practice. I had regular patients; I was delivering babies, making house calls, running a clinic, just being the person who could make things better and easier on other people and I loved that life. I went back and got the doctorates just so I could help even more people. I learned genetic engineering so I could create retroviruses, to cure genetic faults, not to restore my race after a cataclysm," she explained and Dr. Jones nodded her understanding. "My training and my own personal inclinations lie in being a GP, not Dr. Frankenstein," she sighed and Dr. Jones laughed. "But I'm the only Gallifreyan doctor left in the universe. I'm literally it for anything medical that needs doing around here."

"This all must be really hard on you," she answered, waving around at the lab. "That's a huge responsibility."

"You do the job that's in front of you," she shrugged and Dr. Jones laughed.

"Terry Pratchett!" she blurted, clapping her hands in delight at the reference and Susan grinned.

"Yeah, I love his books," she admitted and the other woman nodded.

"Me too, Dr. Campbell."

"Please, call me Susan, I'm not much on formalities," she urged and the dark haired girl nodded.

"Call me Martha," she agreed and Susan smiled. If all the people UNIT sent her were as delightful as Martha, this was going to go far better than she'd thought.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Old Soldiers

Kate Stewart marched into the Trans Mat with Professor Taylor scurrying behind her, carrying his precious laptop clutched to his chest. She blew a stray lock of her blond hair out of her eyes and glanced at her colleague.

"Malcolm," she sighed. "I'm pretty sure that they have computers you can use up there."

"All of my research is on this drive," he protested and held it even more tightly to him. He looked rather like a mole, she decided, huge round glasses, stooped shoulders, and the look of someone who'd rarely seen the sun. He was a timid creature as well, except where his research was concerned.

"As you say," she sighed out.

The flash and disorientation of the Trans Mat always made her queasy, but she ignored the sensation and stepped out onto an alien world.

She was standing in an open plaza, surrounded by Torchwood operatives with loaded guns pointed at her. She nodded approvingly.

"Kate Stewart, Head of Scientific Research, UNIT," she informed them, handing her credentials to the black uniformed man in front of her.

"Professor Malcolm Taylor, Scientific Advisor, UNIT," Malcolm squeaked and handed his credentials over with nervous fingers.

"You wrote that paper on Wormholes, didn't you?" a slender girl with a mop of chestnut hair, a pixie face covered in freckles, and large hazel eyes, demanded of Malcolm as he stepped away from the Trans Mat. "The one where you named a wavelength parcel of ten KHz operating in four dimensions after yourself?" She was wearing a jumpsuit that was a size too big on her with a lab coat thrown over it, but then Malcolm was wearing tweed trousers, a sweater vest and a bowtie, so Kate couldn't criticize.

"Uh, yes?" he replied and she nodded decisively.

"Good, you're smart. I need you right now," she announced and grabbed his hand, dragging him away. "I am having serious problems re-synching the archon wave couplings with the dampeners for the inertial compensators," she told him and Malcolm shot Kate a helpless look as he was hauled away. "The algorithm proofs, but the practical aspects are eluding me."

"That was Ellasiira," a man's voice informed her and she turned to see the Doctor watching Malcolm being dragged away with a grin on his face. "She's a bit single-minded, I'm afraid."

Kate studied the man in front of her; he was tall, skinny, and entirely unprepossessing. If she hadn't been fully briefed, she'd have thought him to be one of those funny doctors who worked with children and wore a red nose to work. He certainly didn't look like an immortal alien with a host of technological tricks up his sleeve.

"That's certainly one way of looking at it," Kate commented. "Will I ever see him again?" she asked with resignation and the Doctor gave her an apologetic look.

"Highly unlikely. Torchwood has already lost two techs to her and while we do send them food, and occasionally insist that they be allowed to sleep, they do keep trying to escape through the windows and have to be returned to captivity. Ellasiira doesn't seem to think about anything else but physics herself and can't seem to understand anyone who does." He shrugged and Kate shook her head.

"I'm familiar with the phenomenon," she sighed out. "She and Malcolm may get along better than you might think."

"I'm the Doctor, Kate Stewart, welcome to Gallifrey," he turned and extended his hand with a grin on his face and she shook it solemnly.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she condoled him and his face fell, becoming serious and she could suddenly see the centuries in his eyes and feel the force of his age and experience.

"I'm sorry for yours as well," he returned and those far too ancient eyes were filled with a boundless remorse. "Everyone here, Torchwood, UNIT, Time Lords, we all lost lives in that attack and then the bombing killed even more, including Police, Fire fighters, and EMTs. I don't want anyone else dying. We lost our homeworld, billions of our own people; we've seen enough death to last us for the rest of eternity.

I don't understand why these people are trying to kill us, Kate Stewart, but I'd rather shut down the Trans Mat and cut off all contact with Earth, rather than risk any more lives," he told her and she looked at him, surprised by his words, but seeing that he was absolutely serious about this.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Doctor."

"Can you keep any more people from dying?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not God, Doctor," she snorted and his lip twitched into a tiny semblance of a smile. "I can't guarantee that more lives won't be lost, but I can guarantee that lives will be saved, lives will be improved, and that we can make a better future for both our peoples, if we stick this out and fight for a future where these sorts of things don't happen anymore."

"I like that answer, Kate Stewart, sounds like something your father would say," he chuckled and she narrowed her eyes at him, wondering how he could even know of her father. "Well, the father that I knew, in the other universe, don't think I've ever met this universe's version," he continued and she relaxed a bit.

"What sort of person is he in the other universe?" she asked.

"The Brigadier, my Brigadier? Oh, the best and most loyal of friends, the bravest and most dedicated of soldiers, and the most stubborn and unflappable fellow I've ever met. Only person I've ever known who took everything about me as a personal affront to his well-ordered views on reality," the Doctor told her with an amused look that made her chuckle.

"That's an excellent description of my father," she agreed and they exchanged a smile of understanding.

"I worked with UNIT in that universe for many years, as their scientific advisor," he told her and they started walking towards Torchwood 5, which was also where UNIT was setting up their base. "Your father used to drive me to tears with his spit and polish, but you know, he never let me down, never backed away from a fight, and even when I drove him mad, he was always polite and gentlemanly. He was and is my very dearest and oldest friend on Earth."

"He's getting on in years, you know, he's in a nursing home now, with my step-mother in there every day, fussing over him," she confided.

"He must hate that," the Doctor sighed and she nodded. "We should have him brought here, Susan could probably do wonders for him, she's very clever, you know," he informed her, every inch the proud grandfather and she hid a smile, he sounded just like her father, talking about Gordon's graduation from Oxford.

"Maybe we can, after all he spent his life fending off alien invasions and never did get to go to another world, he'd love this place," she agreed and the Doctor gave her an odd look.

"Did he want to go to alien worlds?"

"Oh yes, he's always wanted to," she assured him and he looked off into the distance, hands in his pockets, face unreadable.

"Then we'll fetch him along, shall we?" he finally murmured and then turned and flashed her a slightly manic grin. "How about after tea?"

"Uh, certainly," she stammered in surprise.

* * *

Rose settled Jenny down in the bassinet and collapsed into the overstuffed chair with a sigh. Finally asleep, she thought to herself. She grabbed her tablet and let Malla continue her lessons on eleventh dimensional physics. Information and understanding slotted themselves into her brain and her fingers typed in equations with dexterous ease.

The one problem that she and Malla had been working on the most was inter-universal travel. Koschei was going to be building the actual equipment, but the equations for tuning the devices so that the synchronization was smooth were one of Malla's specialties.

Rose wasn't much use at most of what was needed to be done on Gallifrey these days, but she could work on this and this was hugely important.

She was worried about the Doctor. The other one.

He was there in his own universe and he was alone, the last of his kind.

She had become the Bad Wolf to save him once, she'd crossed universes, re-ordered time, and fought Daleks, all so that he wouldn't have to be alone. She had to find a way to let him know that he wasn't alone, that he wasn't the last Time Lord in the universe.

The Doctor came in with a blond woman at his side. She was dressed in a gray suit and cream blouse, she was middle aged, had warm brown eyes, and a face that looked sweet just then, but that Rose suspected could look pretty intimidating if she so choose.

"Rose Tyler, this is Kate Stewart, she's the UNIT bigwig Geneva sent us to take over the lunatic asylum, please condole her while I see if there is any tea about," he informed his wife with a kiss on her cheek and then he wandered off, hands in his pockets, whistling "Clair de Lune" as he went.

"You will eventually get used to him, but it might take a couple of decades," Rose informed her with a shrug.

"He's not so bad, you should see the pack of socially maladjusted, communications-challenged, common-sense impaired, scientists and engineers that I normally have to deal with, add in the career military types that I have to drag kicking and screaming out of the twelfth century, and your husband become a delight and a joy," Stewart informed her with a roll of her eyes and an eloquent shudder.

"Oh Kate, you are going to fit right in here," Rose assured her with a laugh and Kate Stewart gave her a doubtful look, as though she wasn't at all certain that that was a good thing.

* * *

The elderly soldier was wheeled into the medical laboratory and Susan looked up from her work and smiled broadly at him. Her grandfather was looking excited and happy and the blond woman beside him was looking a bit taken aback.

"Brigadier!" she exclaimed with joy and he gave her a look of confusion that was becoming all too common for her these days. She had a sudden pang of homesickness for her own universe and the people there who had known and loved her, before she controlled herself fiercely and rose to greet her guest.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but do I know you?" he asked her and she shook her head.

"No, Brigadier, you don't know me, but in another universe, a different version of you was very kind to me," she explained and he gave her a shrewd look.

"I hope he behaved like a gentleman," he commented.

"Of course he did! It was Sgt. Benton who flirted with me and quite shamelessly, I might add," she chuckled.

"That sounds like him," the Brigadier agreed with a roll of his eyes.

Susan whipped out her scanner and ran it over the old soldier. She picked up the usual problems of ageing, but also some deficiencies that were easily remedied.

"I hope you don't mind if I use you for my teaching hospital for a moment, Brigadier," she asked him with a smile and he waved his permission with his usual good manners.

"All right, let's see how good you've all gotten at reading your scanners," she requested and her six new students whipped out the devices that the Doctor and Koschei had cobbled together for them and she began the lesson.

* * *

The Doctor escorted Kate outside while Susan and her students went to work on the Brigadier.

"He's in good hands, the best in the universe," he assured her and she nodded, though she glanced back as they walked away, her love and concern apparent in her face.

"So, I've been reviewing the security measures that have been taken since the attacks and I think that they are excellent. There are a few things I would like to add, just for my own personal paranoia, but the basic procedures seem well thought out," she assured him and the Doctor shoved his hands deep into his pockets, head down, and scuffed his trainers on the inlaid tiles of the plaza.

"The Panopticon was built long before Rassilon's time, you know," he told her. "The original building was destroyed a billion years ago and rebuilt by Tahanas, one of our greatest architects." He gestured at the magnificent domed edifice. "It was added to many times over the eons, as its functions shifted and as the population grew. Even so, the original shape, the eight sided interior inside of a circular domed exterior has always remained. The original city you see around us is all done in circular buildings, with roads that meander and curve. It wasn't until far later in our development that we adopted straight lines and even so, they were rare, Kate." He gave her a long look, hoping she would understand at least some of what he was trying to tell her.

"You see, we never really saw the point to straight lines, the whole idea, in our minds, was to enjoy the walk, to see gardens, houses, our friends and neighbors. Straight lines draw you on too quickly, make you hurry too much. We only put in straight streets and boulevards after we went to war. War is all about hurrying, there's no time for a tea break, or a chat with friends. We were never really suited for war; it wasn't in our make-up, if you will."

"You don't think that your people will have the stomach for a prolonged battle, do you?" she asked and he felt a swelling of pride and affection for her quick grasp of his meaning.

"No, I don't. I think Koschei, Darginian, Susan, Romana, Andred, and I will be able to deal with it, but the others…" he trailed off and shook his head. "Even we won't be happy about it, but Dar was a CIA agent, Romana, Susan, and I were troubleshooters, and Andred and Koschei were soldiers, so we have the training. But Evarian and his wife were bureaucrats, Ellasiira is a scientist, and K'anpo is a monk. As we find more of my lost people, it's unlikely that we will find any other soldiers or agents. Mother was grabbing the people closest to her and those were scientists and engineers."

"So you think that scientists and engineers won't have what it takes to stick this out?" she asked with a frown and he grinned at her suddenly.

"No, I think they won't know _why_ they ought to stick it out, Kate," he told her and her face cleared as understanding came to her.

"That's what you want me to do, isn't it, you want me to show them why," she breathed out and he nodded.

"I'm a renegade, Kate, the prodigal son who came home occasionally, but would slip out the back way through the kitchens first chance I got," he explained. "Not many of the Time Lords liked me much, and very few of them respected me. I couldn't convince them to come in out of the rain." He ducked his head with a sheepish look and gave her his best winsome smile. She laughed and shook her head at him.

"You're going to be a handful, Doctor, I can see that already," she groaned, but she was still smiling

"Yeah, but I'm loads of fun!" he assured her and took her on a tour of the Capital working to be his most amusing. He might be rubbish at planning but he could recognize someone who wasn't and he intended to use Kate Stewart with the same affectionate ruthlessness that he'd once used on her father.

After all, that had worked out so well.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – Family Vacation

Pen Haxico 2's lush tropical beaches stretched out and away from where the TARDIS had landed and disguised itself as a blue and white striped beach cabana.

The trees looked like ferns atop toothpicks and the water had a slightly lavender tint to it, but the breeze was cool, the sun warm, and the acres of sand were pristine and empty.

"Gorgeous," Rose declared and they dragged out beach chairs, towels, and picnic baskets.

"I chose a spot far away from the usual tourist hotels and busy beaches, this part hasn't really been developed yet, so it's completely ours," the Doctor announced, feeling rather smug about the whole thing. He was also enjoying the sight of his wife in bathing costume, looking gorgeous, sexy, and radiantly happy. She had a large floppy hat on, her blond hair blowing around her face, and she had one of his old shirts as a wrap. He was fairly sure that the shirt was one of his from his fourth self, it was certainly long enough on her, but he was quite certain it looked better on her than it ever had on him.

"This is simply wonderful!" Wilf declared and walked down to the water, staring about him in wonderment. He had on a pair of khaki shorts and a plaid shirt, with a cap on, which was apparently about as casual an outfit as he was capable of. Donna, in a black swimsuit and multi-colored sarong, carried Jenny out, dragging a float cart full of baby necessities behind her. Somewhere along the way she'd ended up as Jenny's biggest fan and the baby had her wrapped firmly around her tiny fingers and "Auntie Donna" was perfectly content for this to be so.

"The planet has radiation shielding around it, so that you can't even get sun burned," the Doctor informed Wilf, as he walked up beside him and stared off at the fluffy white clouds that were drifting far out across the sea.

"It's beautiful," Wilf murmured and turned in a circle, staring all around.

Koschei, in black swim briefs and an open shirt, and Susan, in a green bikini and translucent white sarong, came out of the TARDIS and Susan whipped out her scanner, checking the area. The Doctor spun around and glared at her.

"This planet is perfectly safe, Susan!" he insisted.

"You've said that about every planet, Grandfather, and yet, somehow, I always ended up being chased by something nasty on about eighty percent of them. I don't like those odds, so I am scanning," she shot back with an astringent tone, tapping her sandaled foot in the sand.

"Humph," he answered feeling rather miffed by her attitude and Rose leaned against him and twined her fingers through his. The pleasant sensation of her pressed against him overrode his irritation. He had his swimming trunks on and had reluctantly changed his usual trainers for a pair of flip-flops

"It's a lovely planet, dear," she assured him and he felt instantly better as he looked down with a smile at his wife.

"I'm glad someone has faith in me," he announced, casting a supercilious look back at his granddaughter.

"I have perfect faith in you, Grandfather. No matter how many times you've nearly gotten me killed, you have always rescued me in the end," she teased and he gave her the attack eyebrow which only made her laugh.

* * *

They set out the towels, pitched a canopy over Jenny's play area and unfolded a picnic table and benches.

Koschei found that the sight of his wife in a bikini was a bit more than his self-control could handle, so he set up the grill and then went and threw himself into the cool seawater. After a quick swim, he stretched himself out on a towel and took advantage of warm sun and a pleasant, non-monster filled afternoon.

Nearby he heard the Doctor and Rose making lunch, chattering and teasing each other and he smiled. He had somehow never learned to do much more with a stove than heat up a tin of food, since he'd usually set things up so that he had a cook. He tended to leave the food preparation to those who knew how. Those two seemed to have fun doing it, after all.

The one thing about being a world-conquering megalomaniac that he did sort of miss was the staff. He'd had this great chauffeur in the 70's, who'd unquestioningly driven him around the countryside, the city, or anywhere else he'd had to go and never asked silly questions, like "Why are you trying to bomb a London Peace Conference?". It was a very restful relationship. He'd paid that man very, very well.

That reminded him about the girl, Chin Lee. She'd been a charming piece. He let his mind drift a bit remembering a few occasions when he'd enjoyed a little Chinese.

A sudden fall of water was dumped over his head and his eyes flew open to see his wife standing over him, her expression one that boded ill for him. She had an empty bucket dangling from her hand and a murderous look in her eye.

"It was hundreds of years ago!" he wailed. "Before I met you!"

She turned on her heel and stomped away from him and he mused on the unfairness of it all.

Being evil had been so much simpler.

* * *

Rose grinned as she flipped the burgers; the Doctor was juggling plates, while Donna and Wilf played with Jenny. Susan fumed past and she raised an eyebrow at the emotional storm around her. Koschei was looking repentant and extremely damp and Rose sighed.

"What's wrong, my hearts," the Doctor asked her as he came back for some silverware.

"Those two never seem to get a break," she commented.

"They've not had an easy time of it, no," he agreed and they both watched Koschei get up, dry himself off and go after his wife, looking remorseful. "Susan was still grieving for David and then she was dumped into a bonding with the Master without any warning. Two hundred years of not really knowing where they stood with each other couldn't have helped much either."

"I know that several years of not knowing where I stood with you was driving me barmy," she grumbled and he kissed her soundly.

"I do, did, and will always love you, Rose Tyler," he informed her.

"Would have been nice to know that a bit earlier on, Doctor," she chided him.

"If he had of, what would have become of me?" he asked her and she stared at him for a long moment. She sometimes forgot that her husband hadn't existed before the meta-crises, for her, he was just the Doctor and she had trouble in her own mind separating the two of them.

"I don't know. I suppose I would have just had both of you," she teased him with a cheeky grin. "Might have been fun!"

"Rose Tyler!" he barked a laugh. "You naughty thing!"

* * *

Susan stomped off into the trees, looking for someplace she could go to get a little peace and time to think.

Koschei's memories weren't exactly littered with women, but he'd certainly had his share of partners, while she had had precisely two. She'd married the first man she'd ever even kissed and then she'd been bound up in the Master's mind before she'd had a chance to meet anyone else she might have wanted to sleep with.

The minute they'd become entangled with each other, she'd lost all desire for any other man. She'd burned only for him and that had left her solitary, frustrated, and lonely for a very long time. He'd had hundreds of years to gad about the place, sleeping with dozens of women, a couple of men, and at least one gender-morph. She'd had none of that.

She found a glade with a fallen tree on one edge and sat down on it, trying not to feel resentful.

She loved her husband, was very happy with their sex life, very, very happy, she chuckled to herself, but the element of choice had been conspicuously absent. She'd fallen into him and him into her, without realizing it, and the consequence was that she had only been kissed by two men and had married them both.

"Do you _want_ to kiss other men?" Koschei asked, stepping into the glade and settling on the log beside her, picking the thoughts out of her head, even as she could hear the unhappiness and jealousy her musings had roused in him.

"No!" she assured him with a shake of her head and he reached out to take her hand gently in his own. "It's just that I feel like I never had a chance to be young and crazy. Other girls had dates and boyfriends and casual sex and break-ups. I never got any of that. I didn't have a time in my life where I was irresponsible and stupid. I know it's a strange thing to feel upset about, to feel cheated that I never got pissed, woke up with some strange man, while suffering a hangover, and with no idea where my knickers were," she told him and he grinned at her, his mind clearing as illumination dawned.

"It's just that, especially at the Academy, I watched the others going through that mad courtship dance with each other and I was always on the outside of everything. I felt nothing for any of them and couldn't bring myself to let even one of them touch me." She looked up and saw the understanding in his eyes, but could also feel his relief, his deep seated possessive feelings for her were being strained by the conversation. "Koschei, I haven't wanted anyone but you in two hundred years," she told him softly.

"Neither have I," he murmured and she looked at him in surprise.

"But, Lucy…?" she trailed off, not sure she wanted an answer.

"She looked like you," he explained, turning his face away from her, and the shame he felt was a cloud of darkness over his heart. "I thought you were dead, so I grabbed a girl who looked like you and I used her to try to make it hurt less. I pretended she was you. I dressed her in clothes you'd have worn, did her hair like yours, and then got mad at her when she couldn't_ be_ you. Of all the horrible things I have done in my life, and I've done some really awful things, Lucy Cole is my greatest regret," he told her, his voice strained and his eyes wet.

"Oh my love," she murmured and wrapped herself around him. He leaned his head against her, eyes closed and face tight and drawn.

"She was a good person, sweet, a little naïve, not too bright, but truly kind and I destroyed her, ripped her apart, and then killed her all because she wasn't you." He was weeping, but she didn't try to stop it. He always held so much inside of himself, keeping his pain and regret at a distance to protect her. But he needed to grieve, he needed to release the suffering, and she needed to let him.

"Love, I was falling apart without you, I thought I would die, I really did, I missed you so much," she admitted and he turned to kiss her, drawing her down into the bed of leaves and grass.

"I missed you too," he whispered and they reached for reassurance, forgiveness, and a future without pain.

* * *

Donna watched Rose and the Doctor flirting and laughing with a benign eye. She wanted someone to love, she really wanted marriage, children, and a home of her own, but as much as she liked the Doctor, she couldn't imagine being married to him. He was skinny as a nail and as hyperactive as a terrier. How Rose put up with him was a mystery to her. He'd drive her barmy in a fortnight.

Now that cute Scottish guy from the Torchwood team was far more her type. He hardly talked, but he really didn't need to.

"Doctor," Wilf called out and the other man turned and pointed those laser bomb site eyes on her gramps. "I was wondering, you're making more Time Lords, but can you make more TARDIS ships?"

"Sadly Wilf, unless my mother tucked a hatchery somewhere that we haven't found yet, and honestly, I wouldn't put it past her, we're out of luck. We might be able to get one of the TARDIS to seed and then go from there, but we need a whole nursery infrastructure that we just don't have in order to grow them. We need a TARDIS grove and those took thousands of years to grow," he explained.

"So, were they native to Gallifrey?" he asked and the Doctor blinked as though he hadn't really thought about it.

"Well, no, actually, one of our early explorers found them on Karn, which is another world in that system," he confessed, looking a bit flummoxed.

"So, have _you_ tried looking on Karn?" The Doctor smiled at the question, his expression that of a proud headmaster with a prize student.

"No, Wilf, I haven't, but I most certainly will be very soon," he assured him.

"Where did Susan and Koschei go" Donna asked, looking around in surprise.

"They had a bit of a tiff and went off to patch it up," the Doctor told her with a shrug.

"Well, that's a relief," Donna sighed out and the Doctor and Rose both looked at her in surprise.

"It is?" Rose asked her with a frown on her face.

"Of course it is! Those two never fight at all, it isn't healthy," she explained. "Susan is always so careful around him, puts her own feelings second all the time. If she's willing to fight with him a bit, it means she thinks he's getting stronger, and now she can get some of her needs met." The Doctor was staring at her and Rose was starting to smile.

"Donna Noble, you are absolutely brilliant," he breathed out in a kind of awe and Donna blushed a bit.

"Hardly," she brushed off the praise, but he shook his head.

"One of these days, I'm going to get you to see how amazing you are, Donna," he promised and she laughed, but his praise did make her feel appreciated and that was very nice indeed.

"The Doctor and I hardly fight at all, though," Rose protested. "Are we being unhealthy?"

"Oh no, you two don't fight for a completely different reason," Donna assured her. "You just always get your way and he's happy to let you," she explained.

"Well, that's all right then," Rose answered with a pleased smile and the Doctor grinned at Donna, who winked at him. No need to mention to Rose that, when it was really important, the Doctor just always made certain it was her idea to do what he wanted.

* * *

The Doctor watched Susan and Koschei, as they returned a while later, and surmised that they had resolved whatever the issue had been. They were leaning into each other, heads together, fingers intertwined, and Shay was whispering something in her ear that was making her smile.

He let out a breath of relief and pretended to be absorbed in getting the food onto plates. Donna's insights had made him really think about the stress Susan was under with Koschei. As obvious as it was that he loved her to distraction, he was still recovering from everything that was done to him and everything he had done under the influence of his insanity. She was young, pretty, and for all that Shay was his best friend, she probably could have found someone easier to handle to spend the rest of her life with.

He'd been so grateful that they had both found someone capable of healing the rents in their souls that he hadn't really considered how fair it had been to inflict a seven hundred year old madman on a girl who wasn't even three hundred and who had lost her husband to boot. His mind flashed to the green-eyed, nearly feral girl who'd emerged from the Tower, bleeding anguish and secrets, and wondered how much of her suffering had been from having the Master in her head.

They sat down side by side, Susan chatting with Donna and Wilf, while Koschei watched the interplay with a withdrawn silence. Something was still off with his old friend, despite whatever reconciliation they'd achieved.

He sat down and pretended to not notice the cracks in his best friend's psyche as they ate.

* * *

Rose walked over to where Koschei was sitting on the beach and settled down beside him.

"So?" she prompted and he grinned down at her, that wolfish expression that made her glad that he was on their side these days.

"I've done some awful things, Rose, but at least I did things. Susan was never allowed to do much of anything. She was married off young, then essentially imprisoned on Gallifrey, married off again, and watched constantly by the High Council. You're a fraction of her age, yet you've probably had more and varied experiences than she has." He shrugged and his eyes on her were assessing and shrewd. "She's kissed precisely two men in her life and she wonders what she's missed out on."

"So? What are you going to do about it?" she asked him and he studied her for a long moment.

"Why don't you just tell me what I'm going to do, it will save me a lot of scolding," he teased and she grinned at him.

"You two got all tangled up and never got any of the normal boy girl stuff, right?" she asked and he nodded, still watching her with those cool blue eyes. "So, you're gonna take her out on a date, you git," she informed him. "Make her see that even if you hadn't gotten into her head like that, she'd still be the only girl in this, or any other, universe that you could ever love."

He shook his head and she poked him with a finger. "Don't shake your head, you know it's true! You'd have fallen for her anyway, the two of you just fit together. The problem is that she doesn't know that, because you're bollocks at talking about your feelings. You make jokes or get snarky when you ought to be telling her that she's the sun, the moon, and the stars to you." She watched as he wrestled with what she was telling him and after a long moment, he just smiled and nodded.

"A date, eh?" he asked and blew out his breath in a long sigh.

"Show her that she's missed out on nothing, because there could never be any man that loves her as much as you do," she insisted and he nodded again.

"You're smarter than you look, Blondie," he teased and she poked him again.

"And you're a right wanker," she replied with a frown and he snorted in amusement.

"It's taken you this long to figure that out?" he asked with raised eyebrows and a look of disbelief.

Rose laughed, got up, and went back to her husband, leaving Koschei sitting on the beach, pondering her words, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Her husband wasn't the only hopeless romantic in the family, she chuckled to herself.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – Courting Danger

The date was going well so far, he thought. Susan's eyes were happy and sparkling as he twirled her around the dance floor. Pen Haxico 2's tourist areas had been designed for well-heeled visitors and he still knew how to rig a gambling machine to pay out, in a way that was undetectable.

Susan had glanced at him with suspicion when the machine had disgorged a fortune to them, but he'd pretended to be as surprised and delighted as she was, so she let it pass. He was fairly sure that she wasn't fooled, but she seemed willing to turn a blind eye, this time.

The casino needn't have fretted though, he intended to plough the money right back into the local economy, all he wanted that evening was to make his wife feel that the sacrifices she'd made for him were worthwhile.

She was tucked against him, head on his shoulder, his arm around her waist and he felt as though the universe had been created merely for the two of them as they swayed to the music.

"This is lovely," Susan murmured and he rested his face against her hair.

"You know, getting stuck with you was the best mistake I ever made," he sighed out and she chuckled.

"Ah, my poet," she snarked and he tilted her chin up so that he could look into her eyes.

"Had I never met you, fallen into you, seen the astonishing beauty of your soul, and been bound up in you, I would have lived a life of sorrow, misery, and solitude, never knowing the love, the joy, and the completion of being enfolded in your hearts. Even if we'd never been bonded, Susan, I'd have chosen you over any other woman in the universe," he said, his eyes never leaving hers. She was suspiciously misty-eyed as she kissed him and then laid her head back on his shoulder.

"That's not fair," she grumbled,

"What's not fair?" he asked suddenly confused.

"For you to say something like that in public, while wearing way too many clothes," she answered and he grinned.

"Then let us change our setting and I'll say it again," he suggested and she looked up at him with a smile.

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Susan truly regretted that one could not, in fact, live on love alone. She was wandering downstairs into the casino lobby, looking for the restaurant and for sustenance that wasn't purely spiritual in nature. If she could have arranged the universe more to her liking just then, she'd have seen to it that romance was a bit more filling. She'd even felt remorse at having to get dressed at all, putting on the green top and flower patterned silk skirt seemed a waste, when she only intended to take them off again fairly soon.

She grinned at the whimsical way her brain was spinning around, like a dancer caught in an eternal pirouette. She was feeling decidedly silly and euphoric as she wandered. She'd always known that they lusted after each other, and she'd come to accept that they did love each other, but it was nice to think that even if he'd had a choice, he would have wanted her all the same.

"You look happy." She spun around and spotted her grandfather, in his usual pinstripes, and Rose, in a rose printed sun dress and denim jacket, sitting on barstools nearby and she threw out her arms and spun in a circle, her skirt flaring out around her. They were smiling at her and she laughed.

"I am happy, Grandfather," she answered him and settled on the next stool over. The menu scrolled across the countertop and she jabbed at an order of English breakfast, complete with fried tomatoes and kippers.

"I'm glad, my dear," he beamed back at her and then they tucked into breakfast with a will. Susan carefully did not ask what had given her grandfather and his wife such good appetites and they returned the favor, though Susan did giggle a couple of times at the absurdity of it all.

* * *

Koschei wandered into the lobby, following the connection he shared with Susan, like a homing pigeon winging its way to roost. He caught sight of her, hair glowing like an aurora under the casino lights, face alight, chatting with the Doctor and Rose. He paused to just marvel for a moment that the brilliant, sweet, passionate girl on the barstool was all his. It felt good.

He turned his head and noticed that he wasn't the only person staring at Susan. A tall skinny human male, who looked like a celery stick with glasses, was watching her with an expression both puzzled and entranced. The yearning on his face was one he understood quite well, but he was starting to get annoyed that it was being directed at his wife.

"Excuse me," he addressed the young man, a frown on his face. "That's my wife you're staring at," he continued and the young man blanched and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I don't even know why I was staring, I don't know her, but it's like I sort of remember…" he trailed off and shook his head again, like he was in pain. With a growl, Koschei shoved his hand in the man's pocket and felt around. "Hey!" he protested, but Shay ignored him, until he found what he was looking for.

A silver pocket watch.

"Terelinian!" Susan exclaimed and bounced over to them, with a huge smile on her face.

"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken…" he replied in confusion and Koschei felt a sudden surge of jealousy, seeing how happy Susan was to greet this young idiot.

He grabbed the skinny moron by an elbow, dragged him into an unoccupied ballroom, and dropped him on the plush carpeting.

"Just open the damn watch," he snarled and Susan looked at him in surprise.

"Shay?" she asked him and he saw nothing but confusion in her. She couldn't even fathom why he was angry and he forced himself to calm down. "Why are you…?" she began and then he could see her picking up his feelings of jealousy and possessiveness. She stepped into his arms and pulled his head down so that she could whisper in his ear. "I adore you, you ridiculous man." He grinned at her, all of his anger fled and she smiled up at him.

He crushed her against him and proceeded to kiss her with a great deal of thoroughness.

* * *

Forgotten, as they worked through their mini marital crisis, Terelinian opened his watch.

For two hundred years, he'd loved but one girl. Looking up, he saw her being attacked by the worst villain that their world had ever produced. With a roar of fury, he launched himself at the Master, determined to defend his true love's honor.

* * *

"Usually," the Doctor commented. "I'm the one getting us banned from places for life."

"Not funny," Koschei snarled.

* * *

"You must be joking!" Terelinian protested and Susan took a deep breath. "He's a monster! A psychotic raving lunatic! He's tried to take over Gallifrey before! He's not fit to lick your boots!" he raved and Susan felt her hearts contracting in pain. She held tightly to the back of the kitchen chair, feeling the vibration of the TARDIS's flight through it.

"Terry, you've been my friend for a long time. If you want to stay my friend, I'd appreciate it if you stopped insulting my husband," she told him, her voice so cold the words seemed frozen as they dropped from her lips. Terry stilled, staring at her in shock.

"Look, if he's coercing you, or threatening you, I can help!" he pleaded and Susan turned on her heel and fled the kitchen, tears in her eyes. One of her oldest friends, she thought with a feeling of despair and just like Andred, he couldn't see anything but the darkness that had ridden Koschei. None of them could see his light.

* * *

He felt Susan's distress and bolted away from the Doctor, racing after her out of the console room, as she ran blindly away from the despicable wanker who'd made her cry.

He caught up with her in their bedroom and gathered her up in his arms. She clung to him, face buried in his shoulder. She was sobbing into his shirt and it occurred to him suddenly that the despicable wanker who'd made her cry was himself. It was his horrible past that had put her in this situation.

"The fact that you're crazy enough to love me, despite all that I've done, doesn't make them entirely wrong to hate me, you know." She drew back, outraged by his words, but he pulled her back against him. "I was a terrible person, Susan. You can't deny that."

"You did terrible things, Shay, but you were never a terrible person," she countered. "The core of decency, of honor in you, was always there."

"Not always," he corrected her and she looked up at him with a trembling lip. "For what I've done, I ought to be rotting in jail and you damn well know it."

"You were being controlled!" she protested and he nodded.

"Yes, I was, but that doesn't change the reality that I did those things. I remember doing them; I even remember enjoying some of it. The intellectual exercise of pitting my wits against others was fun for me. I used people as chess pieces, worlds as the boards to be played upon, and didn't care who was hurt by that. I care _now_, I feel horrible about it _now_, but that doesn't change the past." He told her with his eyes fixed on hers, trying to make her feel his sincerity and she slowly nodded. "I have to live with what I did and it hurts, but it hurts far more that you are being forced to live with it as well."

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, her lips soft as petals beneath his own and the wave of love, of desire, of desperate need that was running through her caught him in its undertow and he was soon drowning in her.

They fell across the bed, doing what they always seemed to do when they were feeling threatened, finding ways to get closer to each other. They were trying to crawl inside each other's skins, to join themselves into something greater than they were apart.

* * *

The Doctor was glaring at the TARDIS console, trying to make himself calm down. Terelinian wandered in and looked at him with an expression of confusion and concern. The young man rested his hands on the wrought iron balustrade that circled the console and took a breath before speaking.

"Surely you don't approve, Doctor," he asserted.

"I performed the bonding ceremony myself, as Head of Family," he informed the young man, who looked back at him with an expression of betrayal.

"But he's insane! He's killed thousands of people!" Terry protested.

"He was driven mad by the High Council, placed under binding compulsions by Rassilon himself. He was not responsible for his actions," the Doctor insisted and Terry shook his head.

"That's an issue for courts and lawyers to work out, you can't just decide that your friends are exempt from the law," the slender, gawky doctor shot back.

"What courts? What lawyers? Gallifrey is dust in one universe and a ruin in this one! Shall we go to the Shadow Proclamation? For what? All his crimes were committed in another universe! I think that would stretch their jurisdiction just a bit, don't you? He's committed no crimes in this one, after all! Why can't he start over? Why can't he be given the opportunity to become the man he ought to have been before Rassilon decided to rip his mind apart?" He was shouting and he didn't want to be doing that to this boy, who had only just re-awoken, who was still reeling from the loss of two lives, one an illusion of humanity and the other the life he'd left behind on Gallifrey. He was just so desperate though to make a future for Susan and Koschei that wasn't tainted by all of their pasts.

"Look you, I don't know what Shay was like in your other universe," Donna interrupted, her tone contemptuous and a fearsome glare on her face. "But this bloke has been nothing but good to everyone around him. Yeah, he's snarky and a bit of a pot-stirrer, but he's worked his arse off building defenses for Earth, helping us all out with whatever needed doing, and he's never asked for anything in return, neither! The Doctor says he was mind-controlled and Susan says she's been in his head and seen what was done to him, so I think you might just listen to people who know what they're talking about, instead of acting like a bleeding arsehole!"

"You don't know what he did!" Terry objected, his face though was registering the beginnings of confusion.

"There's lots of things people have done that maybe they regret," Wilf put in, his face troubled and his eyes sad. "Especially if they did them because they didn't know any better. He knows better now and he's done everything he could to make himself be a better person. He's done that for himself and he's also done that for Susan. He loves her; anyone with half a brain can see that. He'd die for that girl, Terry, he would," Wilf trailed off and looked at the young Time Lord as though he was deeply disappointed in him and Terry seemed to shrink under the kindly old man's gaze.

"He was evil," Terry sighed out.

"He was a puppet, jerked about by people with no morals, no conscience, and no compassion," the Doctor pointed out, his teeth gritted on the much harsher words he wanted to use.

"How about this, Terry," Rose suggested as she walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling gently up at him. "Watch him for a while, try seeing him as he is now, rather than as the person he used to be. You don't have to become his friend, just give him the benefit of the doubt and don't reject Susan's friendship, just because she made a choice you disagree with, all right?"

The Doctor looked at his wife and smiled at her. He never forgot how incredible she was, but in these moments, he was humbled by just how large her hearts were and how she'd given them to him. He was so desperately glad that he would have the chance to spend his life with her.

"How can I resist so many pleas for mercy?" he sighed. "You all care a great deal for him, I can see that, so, either he's better at manipulation than even I suspected, or he's truly changed." He shrugged helplessly, still obviously unsure. "You're right about the jurisdictional issues," he agreed. "Aside from yourself, Doctor, none of his victims are around to press charges and if you, who've suffered so much at his hands, can forgive him, then I have nothing left to say." He still didn't look happy, but he did look resigned, which was as much as he could expect at this point.

"Thank you Terelinian. I appreciate your position, I truly do and I understand your reservations, probably better than most," the Doctor chuckled, recalling how he'd once shaken the Master's hand with very little grace, even when ostensibly they'd been working together.

"But I've also been in his head as well, I heard the drumbeat, felt the horrible compulsions they'd laid on him, and have seen for myself how much he's changed. Maybe I should say, I've seen him become his real self, finally, and it has been something of a revelation to me." He scratched his ear and grimaced at the memories crowding into his mind. He thought of all the times growing up that he might have intervened somehow and stopped the monster before it began. He shook his head; the past was far away and long ago.

"Very well, Doctor, I give up," Terry gave them all a somewhat sad smile and went to take a station at the TARDIS console. "Do you need any help?" he asked and the Doctor nodded. Rose took up a post as well and together the three of them winged their way through the Vortex, headed home.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 – The Forests of Karn

The Doctor watched Davian turning in a slow circle and smiled. He was glad he'd brought the young boy, trapped in a man's body, with them on the trip to Karn.

K'anpo stood beside the boy, keeping a fatherly eye on Davian, much as he once had, long ago, with the Doctor himself, back when he was younger, more innocent and had a different name.

Rose, Susan, and Koschei were standing nearby, Susan was showing Rose how to scan a planet for dangerous microbes and Shay was just standing guard over the two women. In truth, the Doctor knew that between them it would take a lot of firepower to threaten those two Time Ladies. Rose had killed more Daleks than the Doctor had, after all and Susan, well, he had a lot of questions about her.

"It's so wonderfully quiet!" Davian was exclaiming and the Doctor sighed. Even though he was living with K'anpo halfway up a mountain, as far from the city as they could safely arrange, the humans living on Gallifrey still tickled at his only partially trained mind. He'd progressed quite far in the last year, but he was still a child yet, despite his appearance.

"It was a good idea, bringing only Time Lords along," Koschei nodded, wandering over to where he was standing. The Doctor nodded and then looked out over the lush green grass and rolling hills of Karn. "It's far easier on him."

"Gallifrey really stripped this world to nothing," he commented, remembering the barren blasted landscape of the Karn from his own universe and Shay grunted an agreement. "Without us around, it stayed beautiful."

"Stop it, Theta," Shay ordered his eyes fierce on his friend's face. "If you sit there second-guessing your decisions constantly, you'll never have time to make new choices. Yes, the Time Lords were bastards sometimes, no, that doesn't mean we have to continue on as bastards for the rest of time. So, stop worrying about if bringing our people back into the universe is going to go badly or not, we can't know that until we get there," he finished and the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him.

"Weren't you the one who just last year wanted me to promise to destroy them if they went off, Shay? Married life seems to have done wonders for your outlook," he teased and the blond rolled his eyes and marched off back to his wife, grumbling and muttering.

"So, where should we start to look?" K'anpo asked, his mild brown eyes watching the interplay between them all with amusement.

"That way," Rose immediately suggested, her arm pointing to the west.

"Any reason why?" the Doctor asked her with a raised brow.

"Because that way feels right," she answered with a shrug.

"Good enough for me," he replied and with a grin, he marched forward, took her hand in his own, and they headed west. Koschei grabbed Susan's hand and she grinned up at him, while he pretended not to notice. He was doing better, but public displays of affection were still somewhat new to him and he occasionally liked to pretend he wasn't completely besotted with his wife, even if no one else bought it, which the Doctor found highly amusing.

K'anpo, Davian walking a little ahead of him, came last, and his smile was widest of them all.

* * *

They wandered through a lovely pristine wilderness, enjoying the breeze, the birdsong, and the clear air.

Rose could feel something at the base of her skull that seemed to draw her forwards. It was like a song so faint that she could just barely hear it on the edges of her mind.

"Your connection with the TARDIS' mind has sensitized you to the emanations of the corals," Malla murmured softly to her and she nodded.

"Yeah, I kinda got that," she answered back with a grin. "So what exactly am I looking for?"

An image appeared in her mind of a piece of growing crystalline coral that seemed to exist in too many dimensions at once. Bits of it seemed to flicker in and out of existence, as if it were impossible to see all of it at once.

"Bit like that bloke Schrodinger's cat you were telling me about, eh?" she commented and Malla laughed.

"Very much so, Rose. They exist in eleven dimensions all at once, so it's not possible for five dimensional beings such as Time Lords to perceive their entirety as anything but a mathematical set of equations."

"Wait, five dimensional? We're five dimensional?" she asked, suddenly perplexed.

"Yes, the three dimensions that describe physical form, the fourth dimension of time, and the fifth dimension of connected sentience, which is how we are able to use telepathy, while humans cannot. The last two are what truly makes us what we are.

The ability to sense Time gives us our awareness of its passage, when it's being altered, etc., but the connection to the fifth dimension, the sentient consciousness gives us our telepathy, it gives us the ability to communicate and bond with the TARDIS sentience even if only in a limited fashion, it gives us the sense of planetary movement, our speed through the universe, if you will. It's what makes it possible for us to regenerate and to channel great energies, in short, it's what truly makes us what we are," Malla explained and Rose listened, feeling a trifle awed by the thought.

She normally ignored most of the really odd parts of being a Time Lord, because they just felt so weird. It was disconcerting to feel a planet turning underneath her, or to be able to sense the orbital speed of the world she was on. Her senses were so much sharper, her mind worked so much more quickly, but she'd not really thought about the causes behind it all, or what it really meant. She took a deep breath and put all of that aside to ponder about later.

"So, what are the TARDIS corals then, some sort of plant?"

"No dear, they're the native intelligent life forms of Karn, dear," was the answer and Rose blinked in surprise.

"They're people?"

"Of course! But then, you did know that already," she chided gently and Rose nodded slowly. She did, but she hadn't really thought about it either, she realized.

"So we stole them and stuck them in ships?" she asked, feeling uncomfortable about the idea.

"No, they agreed to become mobile in space as well as time," Malla corrected. "They are stuck growing in one place with all of time to access, but no ability to move. We offered them all of space to explore, the ability to fly. They had great power, Rose, but we gave them wings."

* * *

Koschei held Susan's hand in his and tried not to feel terribly exposed. K'anpo and Davian weren't friends of his. He remembered the old man from his shared childhood with the Doctor, but that was a long time ago and he wasn't the boy he'd been back then. Davian creeped him out a bit, too. To be an eight year old in a grown man's body was just weird.

The Doctor was his oldest friend, and even though there were still feelings of guilt and regret that cropped up between them, he was just Theta and that was how it was between them. They had gone through so much, had had such a complicated history and relationship, that they had sort of given up on trying to understand it all and just moved into a quiet acceptance. It went far too deep to even start to address everything, so they didn't even bother. It occurred to him that how they felt about each other just didn't really need saying anymore. It was all out on the table now and neither one of them needed to ask.

As for Rose, he was finally comfortable with her. She was so incredibly generous and compassionate of spirit, the sort of person who seemed incapable of judging you for your past mistakes and who'd stand firm if the world was ending.

But he still felt like his nerves were all on the outside and his soul was open and bared to the world. He hated feeling so exposed and so vulnerable. Susan's hand tightened around his and she looked up at him, those expressive brown eyes sympathetic on his face.

"How do you think I feel?" she murmured softly. "Two centuries of ruthlessly controlling myself, of keeping myself carefully defended against any stray emotion or thought, of being afraid of the next attack the Tower might launch against me, of hiding our connection for fear they'd kill you, and here we are bare and exposed." She shook her head with a sigh. "Everyone who looks at us can see our connection. We have no privacy." She looked up at him and her hearts were in her eyes. "Still love you madly, though," she assured him.

"Yeah, still love you madly too," he agreed, lips curling up. "Just wish we didn't quite have a neon sign over our heads, though."

"If wishes were TARDIS," she chuckled.

Thinking about it though, it was bitterly ironic that the two of them, the most private of people, were in a situation where they couldn't be private. Susan was so incredibly self-contained, not cold, never, but certainly not an exuberant madman like her grandfather.

He had always prided himself on his emotional control. Aside from the way he'd been falling apart at the end there, he'd always been the cool and suave villain. He'd not been the sort to rant and scream. He'd been evil, but always refined.

"Sweetie, you're preening because you were smooth while you killed people," Susan pointed out with some asperity and he nodded.

"Yeah, well, at least I didn't froth, that would have been embarrassing," he replied, giving her a look of innocent sincerity.

"Um, you were mind controlling people and trying to take over the universe," she reminded him, brows drawn down and lips pursed. He shrugged, looking around as though they were merely discussing the weather.

"Yes, that _was_ unfortunate, but at least I did it with style," he reminded her, enjoying how she was getting riled up by his teasing. She flushed in the most delightful way and the fire in her eyes was damn sexy. "I was spectacular!" he announced with a grin and the Doctor spun around and glared at him, while Susan punched him in the shoulder. He burst into laughter at their outraged and offended expressions.

"Shay!" she scolded.

"Sorry, but you get this look in your eye when you're mad," he murmured and nibbled gently on her ear. She gasped and poked him in the rib.

"Behave!" she sighed out and he grinned.

"Always," he assured her and she laughed in disbelief.

"Liar," she shot back, leaning against him with a smile on her lips.

"Later," he promised and she flushed, stumbling a bit as she walked. He was quite pleased that he'd managed to fluster her so completely and she slipped her hand along his bum making him cough and miss a step.

"Play that game with me and you might find yourself on the receiving end," she warned and he cleared his throat and extended an arm to her in a decorous manner.

"If my Lady would accept my escort?" he asked her in formal High Gallifreyan, as a lord to his lady might.

"I accept, my Lord," she answered in the same manner, her eyes twinkling with suppressed mirth.

"You are gracious, my Lady," he informed her, walking with an upright carriage and being perfectly correct in his manner.

"And you are utterly shameless," she leaned in and whispered in his ear, her lips turning up into a smile that took his breath away.

"No," he sighed out, his mood shifting. "I'm ashamed of a lot of things, just not how I feel about you." She leaned against him and he could feel the wave of support she sent him, her love, her understanding, her gentle faith in him, it was wonderful and a little frightening as well. They depended on each other and he'd always been so afraid of being dependent.

"Yes, as have I, love, but we have the added benefit of not having much choice in the matter," she reminded him and he nodded.

"There is that," he admitted and dropped a kiss on her temple, making sure that no one was looking when he did it. "But there's a lot to be said for a having a sexy ginger in my brain," he conceded and she shot him a look of smoldering heat that nearly made his knees give out. "Woman, you are going to kill me," he groaned.

* * *

The Doctor tried not to eavesdrop on their conversation and truly, since half of it was in their heads, he wasn't able to follow much of it, but he worried about them sometimes.

"Stop it," Rose reproved him and he looked at her with a grin.

"Stop what?" he asked.

"Stop fussing! They're grown adults. They don't need you standing over them with the frowny face, looking all upset, while they try to work out the intimate details of their marriage. Besides, we have enough to deal with all on our own," she informed him and her brown eyes were serious.

"Do we? What did I do? Was it the landing? Too rough? Do you not like the new tie, I mean I thought it was a bit much, but I wasn't really sure either, true, it's a bit red, but I thought it went well with the blue suit and it matches the trainers…" he babbled and she laughed.

"No, Doctor, I meant that our third anniversary is coming up in a few weeks and I wondered what you wanted to do about it," she told him, still chuckling.

"Oh, I don't know, I suppose we'll go with our usual answer," he suggested.

"You mean, "Lets' do whatever Jackie and Donna decide we're gonna do", that usual answer?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yup!" he told her, popping the 'p'. "Always seems safest, if you ask me."

"We have a TARDIS, Doctor, we can go anywhere, any when!" she protested.

"Well, yes," he drawled. "But then we have to come back again eventually, and they hold grudges. Really long grudges. Grudges with beards and grandchildren and lifetime mortgage payments," he pointed out and she laughed, shaking her head in rueful acceptance.

"You are such a softie!" she teased and he looked at her with a serious expression.

"We will have thousands of anniversaries, Rose, centuries of them. But the time we have with Jackie and Donna, Pete, Kate, the Brigadier, all of them, that time is limited and very precious. It costs us nothing to spend this time with them, but it will mean everything to us one day," he told her and she nodded slowly. He could see that she hadn't really come to terms yet with what being a Time Lord meant, that she hadn't thought ahead to the time when her family was hundreds of years dead behind her, when all they would be was memories and photographs. But he had, he'd seen so many people die, had so many regrets, so many missed opportunities.

"Thank you."

"For what?" he asked in confusion.

"For seeing to it that I have less to regret," she answered and he nodded his understanding.

"It's what I'm here for," he told her and she hugged herself against him.

* * *

Rose directed them as they came up over the last foot hill and emerged into the shadow of a great mountain range. They climbed the slopes and Rose could hear the song growing louder and more beautiful.

She turned around to the east, to where a waterfall cascaded down the mountainside and cut deep into soil before a mighty river curved away from them. Huge trees grew along the banks, birds winged overhead, the wind was turning chilly and night was coming on.

They found a flat area amongst the tall trees and set up the Quonset huts they'd brought with them from Gallifrey.

Koschei built a fire pit, while Davian and K'anpo collected wood, the Doctor fetched out chairs and a table with Rose, and Susan prepped the food.

"Where did you learn to cook?" Rose asked her, while Davian carefully fed the wood into the fire Koschei was building.

"France, we spent some time there in the eighteenth century, learning to cook. We took jobs in the kitchen and worked our way up. M. La Chapelle commended me on my sauces, but Grandfather was his favorite, said he'd never had a better omelet than his," she told Rose with pride in her voice as she smiled at her grandfather.

"He does make a lovely omelet," K'anpo murmured. "One of his better dishes."

"That was long before the Revolution of course, which wasn't anywhere near as pleasant."

"You were there?" Rose asked in surprise.

"She got dragged off in a tumbrel," Koschei growled. "Because some damn fool wasn't keeping a close eye on her." Susan laughed at the offended look on Grandfather's face.

"Yes well, in my defense, I was much younger then," he protested. "I was nowhere near as cautious then as I am now."

"I can attest to that," K'anpo affirmed and Davian looked at him in studied disbelief.

Rose stared at her husband, slack jawed in horror, and then turned to look at Susan with an expression of deepest concern.

"Blimey, Susan, how did you ever survive?" she gasped out.

"Honestly? I have no idea," Susan admitted. Considering all that she'd gone through, it was something of a miracle that she'd survived.

"Oi! I can hear you, you know!" Grandfather sputtered out in indignation, but they all just turned and ignored him. "Oi!"


	16. Chapter 16

A/N - I have so many ideas in my head, but they seem to go off in several directions right now, so please forgive any schizophrenic aspects of this story. Thank you all for your reviews. It keeps me motivated to keep going on this. :) I really appreciate hearing back from you about what parts of htis story appeal to you, so Thank you.

Chapter 16 – Jeopardy Friendly

Rose curled up against her husband, feeling the four beat rhythm of his hearts, and tucked her head against his shoulder, an arm wrapped around his waist.

Asleep he always seemed smaller somehow. When he was bouncing around like a toddler on a sugar high, he seemed to take up so much space, he was a giant. Cuddled against her, face relaxed in sleep, he seemed so fragile and slender, like he was made from wire and papier-mâché. She ghosted her fingers along his skin, feeling the wiry strength of him, reassuring herself that he was solid, real, and safe.

The Doctor protected everyone; he was Time's Champion, the Oncoming Storm, and the Destroyer of Worlds. But Rose Tyler, shop girl from the Powell Estates, she protected the Doctor. He murmured in his sleep, bad dreams starting up, and Rose kissed his temple, stroked his side with her fingers and murmured words of comfort and love to him, sending him back into a peaceful slumber.

Rose would always keep him safe.

* * *

The next morning dawned misty and with the threat of rain coming off of the mountain. The Doctor tied his shoelaces while cocking a wary eye at the sky, his face twisted into a frown.

"I think maybe we should remain in this camp while you four climb," K'anpo suggested. "I'm an old man, too old for such a hike." It was a polite fiction, the Doctor knew that it was Davian he was concerned for, but he nodded as though he believed the tale.

"Certainly, you ought to stay here," the Doctor agreed. "Maybe Davian could stay and take care of you?" he asked the boy with a smile.

"Certainly, sir," he agreed with a shy smile. K'anpo smiled at the offer and returned to the fire. Davian, dark eyes filled with anxiety, looked at the Doctor and then down at the ground. "Um, sir?"

"Yes, Davian?" he asked, keeping his voice gentle and his smile firmly in place.

"Back before, I didn't mean to be rude when we first met. It's just that it really hurt to be near you. Your mind was really loud, yours and Rose's. So, I'm sorry, okay?" The words all came out in a rush and the Doctor had to take a moment to make sense of them and then he frowned. Davian looked up at him, and looked scared as he saw the Doctor's expression.

"Davian, I understand that you were upset and confused when you woke up. I am not angry at you for how you behaved then. But I am a bit upset that you've waited more than a year to explain why you behaved the way you did. When you do something wrong, it's important to apologize and fix it as quickly as you can, do you understand?" he instructed and the boy nodded, his motions spastic with nerves.

"I'm really sorry, sir," he stuttered out and then bowed very low.

The Doctor sighed and ruffled the boy's hair. It was hard looking at the handsome young man in front of him and remembering that he was just a little kid, but he tried.

"It's okay, Davian, you'll get there," he promised and the boy smiled shyly at him and nodded before scampering off.

Rose stepped out of their hut and wandered over, yawning and stretching. Susan and Koschei emerged next, Susan blushing bright pink and Shay grinning with a mischievous look on his face.

Susan headed straight for the fire, where the Doctor had started making breakfast and her husband settled on the bench beside her, arms resting on his knees, looking up at her with his grin still in place. She pointedly ignored him.

"It could rain," the Doctor commented.

"Looks that way," Susan replied and he noticed that she seemed a trifle breathless.

Shay glanced over at him and the grin was really quite evil, he noted with a smile of his own. Whatever mischief his best friend was up to obviously had him in a great mood and Susan rather flustered.

"We've a bit of a hike, according to the sonic screwdriver," he mentioned and Susan nodded a trifle jerkily.

"Hopefully," she said with a sidelong glance at her husband. "It will be a cold walk, a very long, very cold walk." She was glaring a bit as she said it and the innocent expression of harmless sweetness on Koschei's face wouldn't have fooled a child.

Rose chortled and settled down on the bench on the other side of the blond and poked him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Behave you," she ordered, but she was giving him the tongue in teeth grin as she said it.

"I have the manners of a gentleman at all times," he assured her and Susan nearly choked on her tea.

"Pull the other one, mate," Rose laughed and Shay grinned at her. It occurred to the Doctor that somewhere along the way, the two of them had become friends. It made him feel warm inside seeing Shay interacting with the two women. Darginian, the Doctor, Susan, and now Rose, the prickly, snarky, defensive man had four friends now.

That wasn't bad at all.

* * *

Susan was regretting her wish for a long, cold hike, because she was getting it in spades. Despite the fact that he ought to be soaked and chilled through, Shay was still doing his best to make her blush this morning.

She'd be paying attention to the scenery and he'd slip some particularly vivid image into her mind. She'd slip or stumble, bright pink blush flaring, and he'd chortle. She'd scold him, but he was having so much fun and as it was one of his rare guilt-free days, that she just didn't have the hearts to.

"What exactly is he doing to make you blush like that?" Rose whispered the question to her, while the Doctor was busy studying a way through the bracken.

"Shay?" she asked, glancing back at her husband and Rose nodded. "He's replaying certain moments for me. Private moments" she answered and could feel the heat in her cheeks again. Rose snorted in amusement and shot a grin at Koschei from over her shoulder.

"That's pretty much what I thought he was doing," she chuckled. "Well, at least he seems to be enjoying himself."

"Yeah, I'd scold him, but I've got a weakness for that particular smile. The way his lips curl up," she admitted with a happy sigh and Rose nodded.

"Yeah, don't tell my husband, but it's a darn cute smile," she laughed and Susan nodded.

"Your secret is safe with me," she assured her. Rose looked up the trail at Grandfather and her eyes went soft and gentle and Susan grinned. The two of them were just so sweet together.

* * *

Rose felt the tugging in her mind growing stronger and she veered off the lightly tread animal path and cut across a patch of rock and scrub, clambering over the sharp gray and black stone. The sky was dark and threatening above her, ready to dump water on them at any moment, but her mind was filled with a warm golden light that was calling her onward.

She pushed past low hanging branches, and breathed in the smell of pine and resin. The air had a sharp tang to it, her Time Lord nose let her pick out the different chemicals and elements in the air with little trouble and she took another deep breath, enjoying the sensation.

"Smells good, doesn't it?" Koschei commented as he came up beside her and she nodded. He turned back and extended a hand to Susan, helping her up the slope and she gave him a look that should have set the nearby foliage alight and certainly made his pulse stutter. Rose grinned and winked at the Doctor, who smiled back, and they moved on again.

She stepped towards a cleft in the rock and could feel the welcoming song grow still louder. She put her hand against the rock and jerked it back in surprise as a spark leaped from her skin to the stone.

"I think we're close," the Doctor commented and the other three all shot him looks that clearly told him they'd figured that out already.

They all stepped into the fissure and Koschei whipped out a slender metal tube and give them light.

"Oh, I see, you turned in your laser screwdriver for a torch?" the Doctor teased and Shay gave him a look of amusement.

"Actually, this_ is_ my laser screwdriver," he retorted and then grinned as the Doctor started in alarm. "Not to worry, I've re-worked it to be non-lethal, Doctor," he assured him, but the look on his face was pure mischief and Rose raised an eyebrow at Susan, who just shook her head in resignation.

"Boys and their toys, eh, Susan?" Rose sighed and with a slightly guilty look, Susan pulled out her own screwdriver and activated the scanner.

"It's a Time Lord thing," the ginger admitted. "We like gadgets." Rose rolled her eyes and Susan shrugged. Shay grabbed his wife and kissed her and both the Doctor and Rose quickly turned their backs and continued forward into the cave.

"Do you mind?" the Doctor shouted back at them and Susan's giggles were clearly audible.

They settled down after that, moving forward cautiously.

"Do you hear something?" Susan asked and they all paused and listened. Under the sound of the TARDIS song, Rose heard another noise.

"Is that water?" Koschei asked in confusion.

"Oh Brilliant!" the Doctor cried and clapped his hands together. "An underground river!" he shouted.

"But where is the sound coming from? I don't see anything?" Susan asked. There was a loud bang, like a gunshot, and then a cracking noise. Susan looked down at her feet and then up at her grandfather. "I had to ask," she sighed, then the ground fell away, and she dropped out of sight.

"Susan!" Koschei shouted and jumped into the hole after her.

"Allons-y!" the Doctor yelled and followed the other two.

"What about a rope?" Rose shouted after them, then shook her head in bemusement, and with a huge grin, she jumped after them.

* * *

Susan felt the ground giving way and knew in her hearts that somehow it was all because of her Grandfather. He was some sort of jeopardy magnet, she was sure of it.

She was falling, but she was less concerned about that, than she was about the possibility of hitting something unpleasant when she stopped falling. She slammed into icy cold water and gasped at the shock. Another splash landed beside her and she reached out, blindly groping, until she found Shay's hand. The area was pitch black and she put away her screwdriver, needing the free hand to paddle with.

"Susan! Are you all right?" he gulped and she held on tight.

"Yeah, you?"

"Nothing broken," he assured her. A second and then third splash told her that Rose and Grandfather had landed nearby.

"Just like old times, eh Susan?" Grandfather called.

"If you mean once more in deadly peril, then yes, very much like old times," she chuckled and began stroking sideways against the current. "Let's find some shore and get out of this water!"

"No!" Rose called out. "We're headed in the right direction, just let the river take us there."

"We can't see, Rose, we could bean ourselves on a stalactite!" Koschei protested.

"Stalactite? I thought that was the one that grew up!" the Doctor shot back. "Don't you mean a stalagmite?" he corrected. "Ouch! Bloody hell! Whichever one it is, it hurts!"

The river proceeded to grow louder and Susan had a sudden premonition that had nothing to do with her Seer's gifts.

"Cor Blimey!" Rose shrieked and then they all went over the waterfall.

Susan fell through mist and spray, scared to death. She could feel Shay's alarm from nearby and could hear the shrieks of laughter from her grandfather and Rose. Those two were truly meant for each other, she thought with some resignation, as she was once more dunked into icy water.

She kicked her way back to the surface and came up gasping to hear her husband's frantic calls.

"I'm here, Koschei!" she called back and then noticed a faint light coming from ahead. She could see his blond hair bobbing near to her and dog paddled closer to him. She looked around and saw Rose and Grandfather's heads floating nearby and they grinned at her.

"I think we're almost there!" Rose told them and Susan hoped that there would be dry clothes and fire for her somewhere when this was over.

"Good, because I hadn't really dressed for bathing, you know," she shot back.

"I'm freezing my arse off!" Shay agreed and Susan choked on a laugh.

"This is an adventure!" Grandfather assured them and as the light brightened, Susan and Koschei could exchange looks of annoyance.

"This is bloody cold!" Susan disagreed vehemently.

Grandfather just laughed and Rose looked like she was having fun as well.

"You're both mad," Shay grumbled and then the river kicked them out into an underground lake that was brilliantly lit by thousands of crystal growths that covered the walls and floors of an enormous cavern.

"It's beautiful!" Susan exclaimed and began swimming for the nearest shore. Looking up was like looking at the starscape in the library of her TARDIS. It was the universe in microcosm, it was an illuminated glory and it was absolutely breathtaking.

She was swimming, suspended in space, the lights below her, crystals growing in the water, echoing the display above her.

"It's gorgeous," Rose agreed.

Susan reached the shore and stepped with care, avoiding the crystals that grew near the water's edge. Farther back the growths were huge, some as large a trees, growing tall and brilliantly bright, others were mere seedlings, just pushing up from the ground. Shay stood beside her, holding her hand, both of them dripping and cold, but lost in wonderment.

* * *

For Rose the music was nearly deafening and heartrendingly lovely. She couldn't hear words in her mind like she did when her husband or Malla spoke to her in her mind, but she felt the emotions of these incredible life forms moving through her.

"Amazing," Malla murmured in the back of her head. "See if they want to come with us and, if they do, I will start the block transfer computations."

Rose nodded and then reached out with her feelings to the crystals.

"I've never seen such ancient growths outside of a TARDIS console before," the Doctor breathed out, staring around in reverence.

Susan stepped up close to a particularly huge structure that seemed to reach up hundreds of feet into the air, branching like a tree. She laid her palm against the surface and her eyes drifted closed.

Rose felt the change in air pressure and the sudden surge of the Song as something nearly physical and staggered. Golden light licked out from the giant crystal and began to envelop Susan. Koschei tried to run to her and Rose reached out, grabbing his wrist.

"It's all right, she won't hurt Susan," she assured him and he looked at her, eyes wild in concern. "Susan's gift is letting her communicate with them more clearly than I could." Rose wasn't sure she understood exactly why this was so, but something about Susan wasn't as constrained by Time as she was, an eleven dimensional being wasn't as unreachable for her. Rose was watching as bits of the crystals seemed to twist and grow, vanish and reappear, but she really wondered what Susan was seeing.

"She is Arkytior," Malla sighed out and there was both sadness and fear in her.

"What does that mean?" Rose asked and got the mental equivalent of a shrug.

"There are ancient legends, stories so old that even we have no clear idea of how much is true and how much is made up. The Arkytior is myth, but then much of the Doctor's family and history is bound up in myths." Malla sounded subdued, as though when faced by something not as easily quantified as her mathematics, she was rendered uneasy.

"I keep getting hints about the Doctor, but no one ever comes out and says anything," Rose sighed and Malla shrugged again.

"I know that there are secrets there, but I couldn't tell you what they are. I am not part of their family, so I never was made privy to these things. All I can tell you is that according to some stories the Arkytior is a beneficent force and in others she crushes everything with her rage, a vengeful goddess of destruction."

"Which story is true?" Rose asked.

"Susan has fought every attempt to force her to claim that power. She has courted death rather than succumb. That alone should be answer enough, Rose." Malla's voice was grim and watching Susan glowing golden, pressed against the crystal tree, she wasn't certain she ever wanted to know the answer.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17 – The Lake of Souls

Susan was floating in time, detached from herself, cradled gently in a safe place. There were no words here, but she was still communicating with an intelligence as vast as the ocean and as ancient as the stars. She was scared, but it was a distant feeling that she examined without much interest.

She felt as though she were being judged, sorted through by a curious and gentle source, and then she was released.

She fell to her knees on the hard stone floor and was gasping for breath, as though she'd run a marathon. Everything was tinged with a golden light and she jerked back away from it in sudden horror. Four hundred years she'd kept that light at bay, knowing full well where it could lead, and now she fought it with all of her strength.

"Susan!" She turned her head and saw Koschei kneeling on the ground near her, his hand extended and his face full of concern. His mind was filled with his love and his fear for her and she reached for his hand. The moment their fingers touched, the light died from around her and she took a deep breath in relief. He was instantly beside her, wrapping her up in his arms and she rested her head on his shoulder, breathing more easily.

"Thank you," she murmured and he nodded, knowing without asking what she was talking about.

Rose squatted down beside her and cocked her head.

"They like you," she commented and Susan shivered.

"I'm not sure that I do," she replied and Shay crushed her hard against his chest.

"They are willing to come with us, to become TARDIS," Rose continued and Susan nodded. "They say that you were supposed to be the one. Apparently, you're always the one who comes for them." Susan looked at her in confusion.

"What?"she asked and Grandfather walked over and knelt beside Rose with a look of scholarly detachment that fooled none of them.

"Well, the Sisterhood did come to Karn originally for the Elixir, which was supposed to be some sort of remnant of the Arkytior. One legend says it's where she died, another where she killed her lover and then made the spring out of remorse, another one said it was just a rare moment of beneficence, or a way of saving her lover when he'd nearly died. Lots of stories, but they all agree it had something to do with her," he told her and she was starting to shiver now, the cold, the wet, the shock, all conspiring to chill her. The only warmth was from where Shay was pressed against her and she burrowed more deeply into his embrace.

"Can we go home now?" she asked softly.

"Of course, Susan," her grandfather assured her and she relaxed minutely against her husband. She wanted to be back in her lab, working on something she understood, something that was creating lives, helping people, not thinking about the possibility that some ancient power of destruction lived inside of her somewhere.

"Yeah, sure, once we figure out how to get out of this cavern," Rose pointed out and they all looked around at the illuminated cavern and sighed.

"I guess we swim," Shay grumbled and Susan sighed.

"It's an adventure," she assured him in a sour tone and he grinned at her, kissed the tip of her nose, and then helped her to stand.

"Let's go on an adventure then," he replied, still smiling and she nodded.

"That's the spirit! Allons-y!" Grandfather shouted and Susan shook her head. She loved him, but sometimes…

Rose leaned down and picked a crystal from the floor of the cavern, carefully wrapping it in her wet sweater.

"No need to swim," she told them and grinned, tongue in teeth. "Hold on everyone!" she laughed and they all grabbed onto Rose. There was a brilliant light and then they were standing inside of Susan's TARDIS.

Susan walked over to the console, dropped a kiss on the brass surface, and then marched off towards their bedroom, intent on a bath and a change of clothes.

* * *

Rose pet the infant coral and set it on the console.

"Susan's TARDIS, please watch over the baby while I get changed, if you don't mind," she asked, patting the console gently and then the rest of the Time Lords went to get changed out of their soaking wet clothes.

The bedroom that had become hers and the Doctor's was down the hallway a few doors from Susan and Koschei's. She paused to watch Shay go into their room, his face creased with lines of worry and sighed before going to her own.

"Doctor," she called out softly as she went in and saw the trail of wet clothes leading to the bathroom. The shower was already going and steam was curling under the door. Both incarnations of him had loved hot showers and she grinned at the memory of her first Doctor's supercilious lecture about Time Lord biology and how really hot showers were therapeutic. Susan had laughed when she'd heard that.

"Therapeutic? Is that what he said? Sybaritic maybe," she'd chortled and the Doctor's ears had gone pink in embarrassment.

She stripped out of her wet clothes, dropping them into the hamper and collecting the Doctor's as well. She shook her head, just because the TARDIS cleaned up after them, didn't mean they could just be slobs after all. Susan's TARDIS also seemed to be a bit of a neat freak anyway, which was probably the result of being a doctor's TARDIS.

She had a sudden image of patients being wheeled into the TARDIS, long lines of them, and Susan, blood stained, working triage, trying to sort through what seemed to be an overwhelming number of injured and dying.

She could see blood and other fluids on the console decking, watched as first one then another soldier died, while Susan, her face calm and soothing, worked on the worst injured, nurses and other people doing their best to help.

The image shifted and she watched as the last patient was sent away by Trans Mat and Susan sank down on the filthy floor, sobbing and shaking, only able to react to the horror, once the emergency was past.

Rose nodded to herself, understanding now. The TARDIS kept things spotless to prevent Susan from having to remember those horrors. Dirt, blood, those things were too closely tied to her memories of the War. She shivered thinking about what her family had suffered and went into the bathroom.

"Hey gorgeous!" the Doctor called out to her and she smiled at him, wondering what dark moments he held inside of him and if it were a greater cruelty to ask him about it, or to pretend it never happened. "What's wrong?" he asked, reaching out a hand to her. She took his fingers in her own and stepped into the shower with him, letting the heat sink into her bones.

"Susan's TARDIS explained to me why she keeps this place spotless," Rose told him and his eyes darkened in memory and sorrow.

"I was treated here once, you know, a long time back. I wasn't badly injured, but when I came in, it was like a nightmare. Susan was up to her elbows in a man's torso, putting his chest back together. There were bodies being taken out and more wounded being brought in." He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I noticed that the whole TARDIS had changed her interior, her console desktop, everything when I came in her the first time. I didn't say anything, because I was so relieved. It would have made even me upset to see it as it was then, for Susan it must be a thousand time worse."

"What about yours?" she asked and he nodded.

"I changed the desktop after the War, as well," he admitted. "It was a pity too; because it was beautiful, but I'd used it as my refuge too many times, come in heartsick, cried on the couches, bled on the floor. I couldn't bear to see things that reminded me so strongly of such terrible times." He shrugged and she hugged him, trying to push away all the darkness with the strength of her love.

He turned his head to kiss her and she responded eagerly, wanting to feel joy and love again, wanting to forget death and sorrow, if only for a while.

* * *

Koschei dried himself off and looked over to where Susan was crawling into the bed, face weary and body already relaxing as she slid into sleep. He dressed quietly and then went out of the TARDIS, to see where they were.

He looked around in surprise, realizing that the TARDIS had been moved from her original position on the rolling hills and to the outskirts of the campsite. He looked around, spotted K'anpo and marched off towards him.

"You're back?" the dark haired, dark eyed man asked in surprise as he came walking over.

"Yeah, you moved the TARDIS?"

"Davian had his first astrogation lesson yesterday," K'anpo informed him proudly and Shay nodded.

"How'd he do?" he asked politely, still trying to work his mind around his other questions.

"He's a natural, of course, he comes by it honestly, his parents were both first class pilots," K'anpo answered and he cocked his head in interest.

"You know, I don't think I ever asked who his parents were," he realized with a touch of embarrassment. He'd been so busy with his own problems that he'd neglected the other Time Lords. He was still pretty new to being a team player, he sighed.

"His father was Georginus, you might remember him, he was one of the Corsair's children," K'anpo told him and Shay shrugged his shoulder.

"Honestly, the Corsair fathered and/or birthed more children than I could ever keep count of," he retorted. The scandals that the Corsair had caused were many and numerous and had kept him entertained, but he'd hardly kept track of his/her offspring with any consistency. "She also had a child with Chancellor Borusa at one point, there was some suggestion of trickery involved, wasn't there?"

"Yes, she got him high on Blessing Seeds and took advantage of the situation. She thought it was hilarious, I recall," K'anpo sighed and shook his head.

"So, how did shy little Davian come out of that line?" Koschei wondered aloud, looking over to where the young man was calmly fishing in the river.

"Well, his father was from the Corsair's eighth marriage, to Serafinda, a rather sweet young girl from a high ranking Arcalian family. She'd been very sheltered and saw only the romance in the whole thing. After a few months, she came home pregnant, demanded a divorce, gave birth, and then joined the convent on Karn. Never spoke to a man again for the rest of her life." Shay winced in sympathy.

He'd once gone drinking with the Corsair and had avoided her ever after. The man's language had been quite foul and he'd been even worse when he'd been a woman. He'd also been constitutionally unable to turn down an offer of sex, drink, drugs, or a game of cut throat cards. Koschei remembered most of the evening, unlike the Corsair herself, and was quite heartily ashamed of himself for his indiscretions. Waking up next to a naked, drunken, snoring Corsair was definitely a low point for him. The Corsair's motto of "It seemed like a good idea at the time," was not one he chose to emulate.

The Corsair had vanished before the War and he'd always wondered what became of him. It wasn't like him to miss out on that many card games, or that much bloodshed.

"So, who was his mother?" he asked, nodding at Davian.

"Lara," was the answer and now the shame was there and quite acute.

"Oh." It wasn't much of a reply, but it was the only one he could make just then. K'anpo shot him a knowing look and walked a little bit away, so that Shay could think in peace.

Lara had been a friend during his Academy days; she's been best friends with the Rani, until that barmy cow had gone off on her own. He'd discovered, after he'd been seduced by the Rani, that Lara had been harboring feelings for him for many years. He'd felt guilty at the time, more for unintentionally hurting the girl than for any other reason. Lara had been a sweet, nice girl, the sort everyone always forgot about.

He hadn't thought about her in centuries and felt obscurely guilty about that too. She'd been a dark skinned girl, lovely, gentle, but dull. She always seemed to fall for the wrong man and end up heart broken. Once his mind had really started to go, he'd thought her fairly annoying and pathetic. He'd said some nasty things to her the last time he'd seen her and he turned scarlet at the memory.

He took a deep breath and shoved the past behind him and went to talk to K'anpo again.

"What can you tell me about the Arkytior," he asked him rather abruptly and the older Time Lord squinted up at him.

"Don't worry so much, Susan will never choose to destroy those she loves," he assured Shay.

"That's not what I asked."

"No, but it's what you really wanted to know," came back the serene reply.

"I can see why people don't like you much," he grumbled and K'anpo laughed.

"Koschei, you know that girl better than anyone, you've seen into her center. Can you imagine her allowing any harm to come to you, or her family and friends?" K'anpo asked.

"No, of course not, I trust Susan completely," he answered with no hesitation. "What I'm concerned about is whether or not this is something that she will always be able to control."

"Ah, you don't understand, my boy," the ancient abbot responded with a gentle smile. "You see the power of the Arkytior must be chosen for it to be accessed. Susan would have to consciously decide to become it, and she would have to do it, knowing that doing so risked killing everyone she knew and loved. Considering how much she values life, her oath as a doctor, and her own fierce belief in the power of hope, I cannot imagine any scenario where she would make that choice." K'anpo's words soothed him and he relaxed. It was true, after all. There were plenty of times where the power of the Arkytior could have been used and yet Susan had never made that choice, even to save her own life, her own people. She did believe in hope, she did believe in life, and she believed in the two of them together. They were Koschei and Susan and nothing more than that was needed. He nodded his understanding at K'anpo.

"You're right, it's not an issue." He walked on into the camp and went to check on Davian. There was another pole lying nearby and he hadn't been fishing in ages.

* * *

Rose wandered back into the console room and noted that the baby coral was already noticeably bigger. She ran a gentle finger along a ridge and could feel a purring sort of vibration in her. Malla's mind was already working out the Block Transfer Math that would be the basis for growing the complicated space-time anomaly that was a coral into a functioning core for a TARDIS.

There was a lot to do to graft wings onto an eleventh dimensional chunk of sentient rock, but it would be amazing to bring them to life and watch them fly.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18 – Clone Again, Naturally

Susan frowned at her calculations and considered the possibility that she was out of her mind to even contemplate this particular task.

But, she'd promised.

She had the genetics of a thousand Visionaries to use and it was really just a matter of getting the right bits into the right places and having them grow in the right ways. If only there weren't literally millions of bits of data that had a nearly infinite recombinatory possibility. She closed her eyes, sighed out, and then opened them again.

Some days she was as dense as Koschei could be.

She grabbed her DNA sampling kit and trotted off to her TARDIS. She stepped in front of her console and input her destination; Zundert village school, the Netherlands, 1860. She grinned and hit the dematerialization switch.

An hour later she was back with a DNA swab in her hand and a grin on her face. After that, it was all just adding in the third strand of DNA, the bits with all the Time Lord genetics, which wasn't exactly easy, but was certainly easier that building from scratch.

She finished up the work, injected the twisting strands into three artificial egg sacks and set it in the replicator to begin dividing. The next few hours involved very careful and oft times minute adjustments to the chemical soup the developing zygotes were swimming in, but after four hours she knew that at least two would be viable. With a sigh she flushed the messy remains of the one that had mutated too far and concentrated on the two collections of cells dividing at a rapid rate.

If she was lucky, at least one would be viable, if she was really lucky, they would both grow and develop and whichever one was best suited would get the mind of Vincent Van Gogh, while the other would be just as loved and not quite as burdened. She hoped to have them both come out well, so that little Vincent would have a twin to love and be loved by in return.

With everything stabilized and the computers set to monitor the zygotes, she went back to the other twenty infant Time Lords she was carefully nurturing. The ten families who'd buried their hopes months ago had all asked to be included in the next round, they wanted to try again and Susan couldn't let them down either.

"How's it going?" Martha asked her, coming in on duty and Susan smiled at her.

"Project Vincent is a go!" she announced and pointed to the infinitesimal dot on the screen.

"That's wonderful!" she congratulated Susan with a broad smile.

Flores came running into the room with a frown on her face and skidded to a halt next to Susan and Martha.

"You better read this!" she announced and handed the London Times to Susan.

"Does Harboring Aliens Make Us Vulnerable?" read the headlines and Susan's eyes went wide as she kept reading. It was an opinion piece mostly, interviews with scientists and the like discussing everything from disease vectors and viruses to the possibility that other aliens might take more interest in Earth with disastrous results. It was written in a calm, logical tone, designed to alarm people while appearing to be a mere scientific inquiry.

It made her feel sick just reading it.

"Looks like the backlash has begun," Martha sighed out and Susan nodded. She'd been an observer of human history for a long time, but she'd never been famous before and she found that she didn't like it.

"I never wanted any of this," she sighed out. "I was happy being just one more person in a crowd, never getting noticed."

"Susan?" Martha was looking at her in confusion. "I know that Sarah Jane Smith said your people had been visiting Earth for a long time, but how long have you yourself been here?"

"Martha, my grandfather and I left our universe's version of Gallifrey when I was eight years old. We travelled together for two hundred and forty some odd years, visiting hundreds of worlds, spending a little time in each of them. We also travelled in time, I visited China with Marco Polo, nearly got too closely acquainted with Madame Guillotine in Revolutionary France, had to escape from a rather angry Henry VIII, almost got sacrificed by an Aztec High Priest, got shrunk down to bug sized on Earth, and had a dozen other adventures in various time periods here. That doesn't even begin to cover all the time I've spent on other worlds, seeing and doing all sorts of amazing things," she told her with a shrug.

"So, you could have picked up a virus from anywhere?" Martha asked in concern and Susan shook her head.

"First off, the TARDIS has a defensive field that prevents contamination, secondly Time Lords don't get sick, nor can we carry diseases as vectors, it's just not possible for us. In all the millennia that our race has travelled through space and time, we've never been the cause of such a thing. Now, some of the humans we've taken with us have caused some problems. Grandfather tells me that Dodo once gave a whole colony ship a head cold when they landed there, but he adjusted the TARDIS screening protocols after that," she assured Martha.

"Their medical technology is thousands of years ahead of ours, Martha, surely you can't be worried that they're going to make us sick?" she scoffed and the younger woman shrugged.

"No, but people will ask me about it and I need to have an answer ready," Martha told her with a roll of the eyes.

"That's a good point," Susan admitted. "We'll have to address all of this at some point." She groaned and dropped her head into her hands.

"What's wrong?"

"I have so much that needs to be done. I have to train you lot, I have to finish cloning this batch, I need to work on the Brigadier's therapy regimen, and I really need to jump my husband," she grumbled and Flores and Martha laughed at the last bit. "The last thing I need is to deal with this."

"I could deal with it, if you like," Terry told her as he walked into the room. "Especially if you tell me what it is first." He grinned at the two human women who greeted him with smile. Susan handed him the newspaper article and he frowned in concentration.

"If you could write up some sort of counter arguments, it would be really helpful." Susan suggested and Terry looked up at her sadly.

"This is the sort of nonsense they believe?" he asked quietly and she gestured at Martha and Flores, working happily together over near the windows.

"No, not all of them," she pointed out with a sigh. "Terry, there were plenty of ignorant idiots on Gallifrey too. These people haven't ever really dealt with aliens before and they have no reason to trust our word or believe in us at all. We're not the great and glorious Time Lords here; we're just those aliens from Gallifrey, strange, exotic, and unknown." He nodded.

"You're right of course, I had to deal with the Hospital Administration enough times to know our race wasn't made up only of stellar geniuses," he admitted and she laughed.

Soon they were swapping stories about working in their respective hospitals with Martha, Maria Flores, and eventually Greg Hastings and her three other new students, Reggie Smythe, a doctor whose specialty was immunology, Harry Sullivan, a UNIT doctor who was already familiar with alien medicine, and Rory Williams, a promising nurse from Leadworth.

They worked and Susan marveled at Harry and Martha being there. Two past companions of the Doctor, it seemed odd to here, as though this universe was trying to fit itself into the mythology of their lives. She shrugged and decided just to enjoy it.

"You know, my wife's a ginger too," Rory commented to her and Susan grinned.

"What's her name?" she asked.

"Amelia Pond," he sighed out and she could see that he had it bad for his wife.

"I like that, sounds like something out of a fairy tale," her grandfather told Rory with a broad smile. "Anyway, you lot, lunch is being served in the cafeteria and you should all get some food in you! Never practice medicine on an empty stomach, that's my motto," he chuckled as a group of Time Lords came wandering in, her husband among them.

"I thought your motto was "Never be afraid to poke an anthill with a stick," Susan teased.

"I thought it was "Always be ready to run for your life," Koschei commented as he handed Susan her jacket with a smile.

"Nonsense, it's "No plan is too bad to implement," Darginian corrected them.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested.

"You're all wrong," Rose interjected. "It's never interfere, unless you really want to, or you think it might be stupidly dangerous," she told them and they all nodded and returned a chorus of "Yes", "True" and "Exactly" to her.

"Oi!" he shot back a bit louder. "Again, you lot, I am standing right here!"

The room erupted into laughter and giggling and they all trooped out to get food together, the Doctor still bitterly complaining as they went.

* * *

Susan sat down next to her grandfather while the others were still getting their food. He cleared his throat, looked down at his banana and then over at her.

"What?" she asked, biting into her sandwich.

"Susan, how long did it take after we found Koschei again before you um… consummated your relationship," he asked her carefully. "For curiosity's sake."

"About six hours," she admitted sheepishly and he coughed on his tea.

"That's all?" he asked in surprise. "You seemed so… upset with him."

"Grandfather, considering that I had waited two hundred years to get that man into a bed, you're damn lucky I didn't do him immediately, on the Panopticon floor, right in front of you," she snapped. Her grandfather spit out the next sip of tea and turned and looked at her in horror.

"Yes, thank you Susan for that mental image, I will now go bleach my brain!" he cried, dropping his head in his hand.

"If you didn't want to know, you shouldn't have asked!" she retorted. "Any other personal questions about my sex life you'd like to ask?" she snarked and he shook his head. "Why the heck did you want to know, anyway?"

"Because I can't even ask your father if he's bonded to his wife, let alone find out what his experiences have been with that, so that leaves you as the only other person I can talk to about it," he grumbled.

"Well, what about Rand?" she enquired.

"What about him?"

"Well, Malla gives advice to Rose; maybe Rand can give you some advice."

"He doesn't talk to me the way Malla talks to Rose."

"Have you tried talking to him?"

"Well, no, I just assumed that if he had anything to say, he would."

"You just assumed…" Susan stared at him for a long moment and he ducked his head in embarrassment.

"Yes, well," he drawled. "Never said I was good at this sort of stuff." He shot her a sideways look and she grinned at him.

"I will be happy to talk to you about the experience of being bonded, Grandfather, but I don't think that my experience is at all typical, nor do I think it will help you much," she told him with a shrug. After all, she'd become bonded by accident, rather than by design.

"Yes, well, I realize that, but you and Koschei are the only other bonded couple I know right now," he explained and a sudden crash made them both jump. Susan spun around and saw Terelinian staring at her in shock.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't realize, I mean, I uh…sorry," he stuttered and Susan looked at him in confusion.

"What are you apologizing about?"

"I didn't know you were bonded to him, I didn't," he assured her and she frowned at him.

"Why are you apologizing?" she asked with a puzzled frown of her own and then was hit hard with the feeling that something was very wrong. She lunged to her feet, suddenly dizzy and sick.

"Your mother assured me that it was in your best interest!" he cried out and the Doctor grabbed the young doctor by his lapels and shook him hard.

"What have you done?" he demanded and Susan fell to her knees, feeling weak and very ill.

"Koschei!" she screamed and reached for him with her mind. She could feel him, but it was dim and he was furiously angry at something.

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he shouted at Susan's mother. He was bound and being dragged through the halls of Susan's TARDIS. She'd walked up behind him in line for lunch and jabbed him with a hypo spray. He'd immediately felt groggy and she'd dragged him away before he quite knew what was happening.

"I will not allow someone of your lineage and history to father children on my daughter," she informed him with a voice completely devoid of emotion or concern. "Our world may be gone, but our standards remain." He felt sick and weak and she wasn't making any sense.

"Are you crazy?" he snarled and she spun on her heel and looked him straight in the eye.

"An interesting question, coming from you," she retorted, her face still calm and her eyes dispassionate. "No, I'm not crazy. In fact, it's the rest of them who are mad. To trust you, to befriend you, a mad dog with no more morals or compunctions than an animal, it baffles the mind. First she marries an ape and then she marries you," she shook her head. "It's undoubtedly some sort of rebellious phase that she'll grow out of, but in the meantime, I must make certain that she has no permanent consequences from this."

Koschei stared at the woman before him, with her jet black hair, her feline green eyes so like his wife's second form, and realized that somewhere along the way she'd completely lost touch with reality. In her mind she was still living on the old Gallifrey where lineages and genetics defined every aspect of life.

"It's not as though Susan has many choices, right now," he commented. "Who would you rather she married?" He was curious how her mind was working at this point, she was falling apart, but he knew the feeling well and could even find it in his heart to pity her.

"Darginian comes from an excellent family and while Terelinian is not from the highest circles, he's certainly better than rubbish like yourself," she informed him and he fought down the anger and jealousy that her words inspired.

"I love her, you know," he murmured and saw a flicker of something behind the other woman's eyes. "I'd do anything for her." He meant it too, he'd destroy worlds to protect her, slaughter millions to get to her, but he'd also refrain from all of that, just to keep her love and regard. He would be the man she needed him to be, the man he ought to have been.

"Then give her up," the Time Lady retorted and he shook his head. He was dragged into a room and started to freeze up when he saw what she had there. A cold metal table in the middle of the floor awaited him and a d-mat gun was leaning against the wall.

"I can't, my Lady, don't you understand? We're bonded," he told her and she frowned.

"Well, that's easily solved. The bond is dissolved by death. Of course, I'm sorry that Susan will suffer, but it will all be for the best. She'll thank me one day." He was being bound to a table, the drugs in his system making him too weak and woozy to fight her off.

"She won't you know, she loves me, she'll never forgive you," he insisted and the woman shook her head. "This could kill her!" he cried out, trying to stop what he knew was coming.

"Better that she die then that she births mongrels into the family," she replied, her voice cold and distant. Koschei was scared now; the crazy bitch was really going to kill him.

"How can you say that about your own daughter?" he asked in horror. "Don't you love her?"

"Love her? What sort of sentimental rubbish is that? I thought better of you, Master, I really did," she snorted in derision and he shivered. "We are Time Lords, heirs to a billion years of history. We are an advanced race, far superior to these primitive creatures! We do not wallow in mawkish feelings, like animals, we rise above our baser instincts. You are nothing, an unworthy thing that doesn't deserve to touch her."

"_I_ don't deserve? I don't _deserve_? Do you know what we've gone through, her and me? Two hundred years we fought to get back to each other!" he shouted. "I spent two hundred years missing her, wanting to be with her, loving her, even when I didn't know where she was or if she even liked me! And Susan, she waited for me, she fought for my sanity, she protected me all that time! We struggled so long to have a life together and you cannot take our future from us!" he was screaming now and fighting against the restraints, even though he felt as weak as a kitten.

"I can and I will," she assured him in a quiet voice. The d-mat gun held steady in her hand, pointed at his head. There was no way he could regenerate from a shot from that gun. It was a final death. He thought of his wife, how much he loved her, and hoping that his end wouldn't completely destroy her.

Killed by his mother-in-law, how ridiculous, he sighed to himself.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 – Poisonous Thoughts

Koschei looked up into Susan's mother's eyes and knew that he was about to die.

"Please, don't do this," he begged one last time.

"I have to," she told him and her tone brooked no contradiction.

"No, Naomi, you don't." the man's voice was unexpected, but before Susan's mother could respond, he'd shoved a hypo into her neck and released a sedative. She sank to the ground and Koschei looked up into the face of his savior.

Evarian, Susan's father.

Looking down at his wife with an expression of sorrow and regret, Evarian sighed and then turned to his son-in-law and began releasing him from the straps.

"I'm so sorry, Koschei," he told him and then helped him to sit up. "I knew Naomilliar was falling apart, but I didn't know she'd go this far."

"Not your fault," he slurred, leaning heavily on the younger man and feeling like he wanted to throw up.

"Shay!" Susan's agonized cry rang in the corridors and he lifted his head, hand reaching for her, even though he couldn't see her.

"He's in here!" her father called back to her and Susan burst into the room and stopped, horrified by the scene. The Doctor was right behind her with Terry, Dar, Rose, and more that his groggy mind couldn't process.

"Evarian?" his old friend asked, his face creased in confusion.

"He saved me," Koschei reassured the Doctor, who looked at his son with relief in his eyes. "He saved me from her," he gestured vaguely at Susan's mother, lying on the floor unconscious. "I feel sick," he murmured and started to slide towards the floor.

"Shay!" Susan's voice was the last thing he heard as he fell.

* * *

Darginian hoisted Koschei up in his arms and Susan followed at a breakneck pace as the burly ex-agent raced to the med-bay. He settled her husband on the same damn bed he'd just been on, not so very long ago, and Susan used her anger and irritation at the way he seemed to get injured on a regular basis to cover her rising distress.

She scanned him and nearly wept as the answer popped up.

"Aspirin," she choked out and was grabbing the antidote hypo-spray and jamming it into his throat with brutal haste. Please God, don't let me be too late. Tears were running down her face and she dashed them away in annoyance. She was a doctor for heaven's sake; she needed to keep it together.

Suddenly, Martha moved past her and grabbed the scanner, checking his vitals, Rory was hooking up an IV, and Harry was putting his arms around her and drawing her back.

"I have to…" she began and Harry shook his head.

"Next of kin, Susan," he reminded her and she nodded. She knew that, of course, but she'd been the only doctor around for so long, that she'd had no choice before. "We've drilled on aspirin poisoning, we know what to do," he soothed her and she turned her face into his shoulder and burst into tears.

Her mother had tried to kill her husband and still might succeed.

* * *

Darginian left the med-bay and went to find Susan's mother. She was lying, unconscious still, on the floor of the storeroom she'd converted into an execution chamber and he stared coldly down at her supine form.

He lifted her up and strapped her securely to the metal table. He stood for a long time, fists clenched at his sides, thinking unpleasant thoughts, then, finally, he turned to leave the room.

The Doctor was leaning against the wall directly across from the still open door, watching him with dark, thoughtful eyes.

"Two and a half minutes," he informed Dar. "What were you thinking so hard about?"

"About whether killing her was worth it," he answered honestly and the Doctor frowned.

"Worth jail time?"

"No, worth losing another piece of my soul, Doctor," he replied and walked out of the room and past the older Time Lord, remembering a time in his life when he wouldn't have hesitated. He stopped. "Is it strange to you that an ex-homicidal narcissist is the man who taught me the value of life?"

"No, not strange at all," he answered, his voice sad and filled with a thousand regrets. "He has that effect on one."

* * *

Susan looked over at where Terry was standing, staring down at Koschei, his face filled with horror, and she stepped away from Harry with a sudden rage.

"Get out," she hissed at him and he looked at her in dismay.

"She was going to talk to him, that's what she told me, ask him to leave, she never said…" he started.

"Get out," she repeated, her fury close to the breaking point.

"She said he trapped you into the marriage," he pleaded and she struck him, slapping him hard across the face, knocking him back against the wall. Around her everyone was frozen, like some photographic tableau. He was staring at her in shock and hurt and she was so furious that it was an effort not to just keep hitting him.

"I'm not a child or an idiot, Terelinian," she told him. "I don't need to be rescued, or protected. I don't want someone around me who thinks that they can make my decisions for me. You don't get to decide what is right for me, you don't get to treat me as though I am lesser," she informed him with an icy fury that made him go pale and still, backed up against the wall, looking at her in fear. "I was a doctor on the front lines of the Time War for over a hundred years! I have gone through things you cannot comprehend! I am far stronger than you will ever know, so don't you dare make excuses for what you did!"

"If you wanted to know about my marriage, you should have bloody well asked me! I would have told you that I married Koschei because I love him, because he's the finest, most brilliant, most amazing man I've ever known. I married him because he's worth everything I have gone through to be with him and because he is my perfect match in every way. There is no one I would ever choose over him. Now get the hell out of my TARDIS before I hit you again!" She shouted and he fled.

"And people think _I_ have anger management issues," Koschei murmured from the bed and she spun around in relief to see him smiling at her. Martha and Rory were looking at her with respect mingled with alarm, while Harry was just smiling. Rose grinned at her and Susan blushed, realizing that she'd blurted all that out in front of everyone.

"It's the hair, I'm pretty sure. Gingers always have a bit of a temper," her father added. "She was such a quiet child, too."

"I think I'll just sink into the ground now," she moaned and Shay extended a hand to her. She went over and grasped his fingers in her own, feeling embarrassed by her emotional display.

The others filed out of the room, belatedly giving them some privacy, and Susan was checking his vitals and fluids, still self-conscious and flushed.

"I didn't know," he said softly and she looked at him in surprise.

"What?" she asked him suddenly confused.

"That you thought of me like that," he confessed and she gaped at him. "You've never actually said any of that before." She racked her brains, trying to recall all the conversations they'd had and shook her head.

"But surely, you had to know!" she insisted and he shook his head.

"Thick as a brick you are, love," he teased and she leaned down to look him in the eyes.

"I love you, not because I got stuck in your head. I love you because you're utterly beautiful. When I fell into your center, I was stunned by how incredible you are, by how gorgeous your soul is. I have never seen anything so amazing, so wonderful as what is inside of you, my love. Even if I had a choice of every other man in the whole of Time and Space, I'd still choose you. I'll always love you, always want you, always be awed by your mind, moved by your soul, and stirred by your passion. You are the only one for me, now and forever," she told him and watched his eyes soften and his face looking up at her in wonderment. "Are we clear now?"

"Yes, quite clear," he whispered. She climbed up on the bed beside him and wrapped her arms around him. He held her against his heart and sighed into her hair.

"How are you feeling?" she asked still worried.

"There are no words," he told her and she could feel the flood of joy and relief in him and snuggled more tightly against him.

"You and me, Shay," she murmured.

"You and me, Susan," he answered back and then they fell silent, holding each other and just letting themselves feel their connection and the joy of being together and safe.

* * *

The Doctor stood outside the door to the med-bay and sighed in relief. Dar slid down the wall and dropped his head into his hands.

"Father," Evarian bowed to him. "May I request permission to separate from Naomilliar," he asked and looking at his son's grief-stricken face he nodded.

"Permission is most certainly granted. I'm so sorry, son."

"As am I," he replied.

"How long has she been falling apart?" he asked next and his son shrugged.

"It's hard to say, it might have been happening even before we escaped Gallifrey. She has never been a… warm person. We've never had a bond or even a very strong connection. It was always just duty to her. I used to think that was the way it ought to be." Evarian glanced at the closed door to the med-bay, behind which his daughter and her husband were taking care of each other, and then down at the floor. "I was wrong."

"Yeah, well, I've been wrong about a few things in my day, too," the Doctor absolved him and Evarian stood, his head down, and tears tracking their way across his face.

"What happened to us?" Evarian asked softly. "We used to be a great people."

"We got complacent, we got insular, we got arrogant," Darginian muttered and stood up. "We got stupid."

"A billion years of history, it's a lot of weight to put on someone," the Doctor shrugged.

"I have to go check on Arthur, he has another bout of physical therapy in an hour," Evarian sighed out. He walked over to his father and gave him a tentative hug. The Doctor grabbed him in a fierce embrace before releasing him. "I'll see you later, Dad," he murmured and smiled sadly at his father as he left.

"Later, son," the Doctor nearly whispered and his eyes were burning with unshed tears. He had his son back, the little boy he'd loved with both his hearts had been returned to him, grown and filled with his own regrets, but at least he was no longer the chilly stranger.

"You better have more kids, Doctor," Darginian told him. "Because you make some really good folks." He grinned at the tall, broad shouldered man with his dirty blonde hair and rugged features and nodded.

"Yup," he answered, popping the 'p' and Darginian laughed. "Though, Dar, I think I may have to put you back into your old job."

"What?" he asked with a puzzled frown.

"Protective Koschei duty. That man is even more jeopardy friendly that Rose!" he complained and Dar nodded.

"Tell me about it! I think I'll quit Torchwood and take care of him full time, he needs a body guard," he grumbled, arms crossed, glaring balefully at the closed door.

"Don't you even think about it!" Geneva Murray ordered as she came around the corner and glared at Dar. The Doctor felt the surge of unguarded emotion from Darginian and scampered away in a hurry. This was a conversation that needed privacy.

* * *

Dar watched the Doctor flee and felt a sense of betrayal.

"It was a joke," he retorted and she walked up to him, grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down into a kiss. He forgot himself and returned it, pulling her into his arms, and pressing her against the wall of the TARDIS. He had wanted this and it felt so good, she fit against him and her intense warmth was intoxicating. He was losing himself in the moment, when a noise from farther down the corridor jolted him back to awareness and he pulled away from her abruptly, flustered, and upset.

"I can't, Geneva, I just can't," he whispered, still breathing hard.

"Why not?" she demanded. A valid question and one that deserves an answer.

"Because you'll grow old and die and I'll have to watch it happen," he answered her. "Romana is willing to go through that, but I just can't. I can't get involved with you, care that much about you, and then sit back and watch you die. I'm not made that way." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not strong enough to go through that."

"I see," she answered slowly. "I suppose that I hadn't thought of it in that light. It's just that Susan and Romana seemed to be fine with the age difference."

"Susan still mourns for her first husband and he's been dead for two hundred years," he sighed out. "She will live for thousands more years and she will miss him for all of that time. Romana will have James for maybe another eighty to a hundred years and then he'll be gone and she'll be grieving him for thousands more years," he explained and she nodded. Maybe he was a coward, but he couldn't make a life with her and then sit back and watch her die. He wasn't built that way. If he made that deep a commitment it would have to be for forever.

"I can understand that, Dar, I can. But, I can't change how I feel about you," she told him and his hearts contracted in pain.

"I know. Me neither" he told her and it was the closest he could come to admitting those feelings to her.

"So, what do we do?" she asked him.

"Our jobs," he answered and she flinched as though he'd hit her. "If you want a transfer somewhere, I'll understand." He nodded to her, turned and walked away. It hurt like hell, but it hurt a lot less than watching her die would years from now.

Behind him, alone in the corridor, Geneva Murray sank down to the floor, dropped her head in her hands, and started crying as quietly as she could.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20 –Tea and Complications

K'anpo came and collected Naomilliar the next day. Davian was done with his training and was going to live now in the capital, testing his telepathic shields in a more challenging environment.

Of all of them, K'anpo was the most skilled mental healer and Naomi's best chance was to go up the mountain with him and let him help her find some peace. She had gone off with a flounce and no sign of repentance, but she'd obeyed the Doctor from her sense of duty and that was the best they could hope for.

Pete had argued for a trial and then some prison time and Susan had been inclined to agree with him, but she knew she wasn't exactly objective on the subject.

Grandfather had shaken his head though and asked that K'anpo be given the chance to work with her. If he couldn't do anything to cure her mental collapse, then he'd think about "other options".

Pete had looked grim and Koschei had taken him aside and talked to him privately. After their conversation, Pete had looked much happier, but Koschei still wouldn't tell her what they'd discussed. She was secretly hoping it was some sort of cortex bomb, but she also hoped that she'd get over her fury eventually and feel guilty about that thought. It might take her a while though.

* * *

Romana and James arrived that afternoon with two more refugees and Susan watched them approach with a smile blooming on her face.

"Hedia!" she shouted and the taller of the two women turned at the sound of her voice and gave her a wry smile.

"My Lady, Susan," she called back in a throaty contralto, her tanned skin and bleached out blond hair attesting to much time spent outdoors. Hedia was a scout, a woman who spent all of her time searching out new worlds and exploring the most distant stars.

"Why Scout Commander Hedia," the Doctor chuckled and she bobbed her head at him.

"My Lord Doctor," she responded. "It's been a long time."

"It has indeed, I haven't seen you since before the War," he admitted. "Last I'd heard you were out beyond the 58th galaxy, working your way hub wards."

"Yes, then I got dragged back to fight just before the Time Lock. The Lady Professor recruited me and that was that." She shrugged and Susan smiled, she'd forgotten how succinct Hedia was. Never use five words where one would do, seemed to be her motto.

"This is Lunzi," Romana introduced a second Time Lady, a slender girl who looked like she was frightened of her own shadow. The girl curtsied to them both, staring at Grandfather with an awed expression.

"I'm a mathematician," she told them and Susan nodded politely. Eyeing the young woman, she had a sudden inspiration, nearly a vision, and she smiled.

"Lunzi, come with me, there is someone I want you to meet." She escorted the girl to where Terelinian was standing, talking over the next phase of building programs with some of the contractors and cleared her throat.

"My Lady?" he enquired politely, still wary of her. As well he should be, she thought savagely.

"This is Lunzi, she's just arrived, Lunzi this is Doctor Terelinian, he's going to get you all settled in here, alright?" she asked the young woman, who peeped up shyly at the tall rangy form of the doctor.

"If it's not too much trouble," she murmured.

"No trouble at all," he assured her, looking a bit distracted, but willing. Susan turned and left the mathematician behind without a backwards glance.

Well, that was one problem taken care of. Hopefully he'd be so busy rescuing the obviously hapless Lunzi he'd stay the hell away from her and her husband from now on.

When she returned she saw Hedia deep in a conversation with Darginian, while Geneva tried not to look acutely miserable at his side. She sighed out and wondered whether there was anything to be done about that mess or not. It was obvious that Dar and Geneva had fallen for each other, but Dar wasn't doing anything about it and Susan understood why.

Even if she hadn't been with Koschei, if she had another David show up, she wasn't certain that she would act on her feelings again. Watching her beloved husband age and die had nearly killed her, she had carried a terrible agonizing ache in her hearts that still hurt, even now. Koschei materialized by her side and she turned instantly towards him, everything else forgotten as he gathered her to his chest.

"Hello my love," she sighed up at him happily; in his arms was her favorite place to be.

"Hello," he returned and kissed her softly. "Did Romana bring us some fresh meat?" he asked, flicking his eyes at Hedia and then over to where Lunzi stood beside Terelinian in the distance.

"You know that it is comments like that that make Andred twitch, right?" she grumbled and poked him gently with a finger.

"Really?" he asked her with a widening of those blue eyes intended to be innocent seeming, but the curled lip smile ruined the effect.

"Yes, really," she sighed, not immune to the smile at all, wrapping her arms around his neck and running her hands through his short, wild blond hair.

"Then, I ought to watch those comments, shouldn't I? I probably also shouldn't comment on how sexy you look in a lab coat, either, eh?" he growled low in her ear and she was instantly flushed and warm.

"Not if you don't want me to do something improper in public, no," she murmured back to him, looking up at him through her lashes.

"Stop it you two!" Grandfather scolded and they turned and grinned at him, unrepentant. He rolled his eyes at them. "Really Koschei, you are old enough to know better, you should set her a better example," he teased, his lips twitching.

"You're quite right, Doctor, I should school her thoroughly, shouldn't I?" he purred and Susan found herself blushing at the suggestive way he said that.

"Koschei!" Rose groaned and dropped her head in her hand. "You are utterly shameless," she chided, but she was obviously trying to keep from laughing.

"I'm afraid so," he replied with a shrug. "But, I'm not totally irresponsible, so back to work for me," he kissed her thoroughly and then headed back to the workshop he shared with the Doctor.

"Yeah, I should get back too," her grandfather sighed out. "We have the beacons up and running and the defense screens are nearly done, but we have to engineer a new computer system to run the command and control boards and Shay keeps running out of pasta." He turned and headed after his best friend and Susan stood staring after him in confusion.

"Pasta?" she asked and Rose shook her head.

"You know that I have no idea what half of what they say means," Rose admitted. "Now, I'm off as well, Malla has me working on modeling Charged Vacuum Emboitments, next." Rose walked off and Susan shook her head.

"And she says _they_ don't make sense," she grumbled and headed back to her lab.

* * *

A shadow fell over him and the Doctor looked up from where he was helping Koschei solder components together. Sarah Jane Smith stood watching him with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Hullo, Sarah Jane," he called out and she gave him a small smile, but it barely reached her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"We're overdue for an interview, Doctor," she told him and he nodded slowly.

"Let's have some tea," he decided and Koschei looked up in surprise at him, then set down the soldering iron, turning it off.

"What's going on?"

"Sarah Jane has some questions for us," he answered and his best friend turned assessing blue eyes on the reporter.

"Then we had better answer them, hadn't we," he replied, wiping off his hands and rising. "Shall I get the tea things?"

"Yes, please, Shay," he agreed.

"If you'd invite Dr. Campbell, as well?" Sarah Jane asked politely and the Doctor felt a chill of premonition going through him. Something was very wrong when Sarah Jane was being polite.

"I'll fetch her along, of course," Shay agreed, his eyes shadowed. "But, please be gentle with her, Miss Smith, she'd been having a rough time of late." She looked at Koschei in surprise, suddenly studying him more closely, as if she hadn't really seen him before.

"I'll do my best, Koschei," she answered and he nodded and then left. The Doctor pulled out a table from under the workbench and several folding chairs, setting them up for this impromptu meeting. Sarah Jane was watching him through the whole process and he wondered very much what she was thinking.

"Something has happened, obviously," he told her and settled into one of the chairs, letting her choose her own seat. She pulled one chair a bit apart from the other three and settled into it with a frown.

"Tell me about the War, Doctor," she requested and he was taken by surprise.

"Why?" he asked, taken aback. "It was awful and I don't think there is more to say than that."

"Because questions are being raised about it. Your status as "refugees" is being called into question. There are some who are suggesting that you all might be escaped criminals and that's why you went into hiding," she explained.

"They went into hiding because the War was lost and over, but the people in charge wouldn't accept that. They insisted that everyone stand firm and go down together. It was hopeless but they wouldn't let anyone escape. My family wanted to save what they could of our people, try to preserve some of our history, our culture, our art, and literature. Even though the price of that preservation was losing her life, my mother still did what she could," he told her, fighting back tears as he thought of everything she'd done, all that she'd suffered to try to save Susan and the others.

"So they were deserters?" she asked and he looked at her in surprise.

"Only soldiers can be deserters, Miss Smith," he responded coldly. "The only soldier amongst the survivors was Romana she had already been stripped of rank for protesting the course of the war."

"You were a soldier though, right?"

"I wasn't there when they escaped. I was sent on a mission and was away when it happened," he explained. "I stayed to the end. I saw them all die." His voice was bleak and the pain was almost too much to bear. The memories were so immediate, so visceral.

"Grandfather!" Susan was at his side and her hands were on his face, her mind was moving through his, soothing and calming him, tucking away the worst agonies and gently healing what she could.

"What did you say to him?" Koschei was demanding of Sarah Jane and he shook his head, gently dislodging his grandchild from his mind in the process.

"It's not her fault. She has a right to ask the questions," he assured the agitated engineer.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause you distress," Sarah Jane was saying, her face troubled.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome is something that Gallifreyans suffer from as well," Susan explained. "The problem is exacerbated by the fact that we have perfect memory recall. It's hard for us to talk about our memories without reliving them to some extent."

"I'm so sorry," Sarah Jane was apologizing.

"Don't be, Sarah, really. Let's just have some tea," he murmured, sitting up and trying to push away the memories.

Susan set a cup in front of him and poured out for them all, while Koschei put out the plates and started doling out the sandwiches. He distracted himself from the memories by watching the way they worked together, never getting in each other's way, just seeming to know where the other was at all times.

"Where are these questions coming from?" he asked finally when he felt under control and Susan and Koschei turned to look at Sarah Jane at the same moment.

"That's a bit creepy," Sarah Jane commented and they looked at her in puzzlement while the Doctor chuckled.

"They can't help it, their bond is very close," he explained and Sarah Jane looked at him in confusion. "They are telepathically linked to each other."

"I thought your entire race was linked," Sarah commented, looking at him in enquiry.

"We are, Sarah, but on a low level, a marriage bond is far deeper."

"I can feel in general where all the various members of my people are, its faint, but always there, like background noise, omnipresent but essentially ignored until you focus on it," Susan broke in to explain. "Closer family and friends, I can feel a basic direction, but I can also get a sort of general read on their emotional state, which is how I knew Grandfather was distressed. With Koschei it goes much deeper than that." She turned and looked at him and he smiled into her eyes, both of their faces going soft and their eyes lighting up, the feelings they had for each other as clear as day to him.

"Oh, how lovely," Sarah Jane breathed out and they both looked at her, suddenly shy and a bit embarrassed.

"Sorry," Shay apologized and ducked his head down over the sandwiches.

"Don't apologize, Koschei, not for something so wonderful," Sarah Jane told him with a shake of her head.

"There's not a lot of privacy in this," Susan commented, with a shrug. "It's hard sometimes to be a private person and to have one's deepest feelings essentially on display."

"Is this how it is for all Gallifreyan married couples?" the brunette reporter asked next and they shook their heads.

"Even amongst us, it's rare for so close a bond to be forged. The more intimate you are with your partner, the closer the bond can be become, but most people are uncomfortable with having their innermost self being exposed to anyone, even the ones they love the most," the Doctor told her and she nodded her understanding.

"You asked me earlier where the questions were coming from, Doctor," she said, changing the subject, as Susan and Koschei were obviously uncomfortable with the revelations being made.

"Yes," he answered, looking at her intently.

"You know a great deal about me, Doctor, so do you know about Mr. Smith?"

"The Xylok supercomputer in your attic?" he asked and she nodded. "What about it?"

"Well, Mr. Smith has been monitoring transmissions from the Shadow Proclamation and they've been discussing charges brought against you lot from the Nestene Consciousness, having to do with a possible universal collapse event," she told him.

"Oh yeah, but we got that sorted ages ago!" the Doctor told her. "We prevented it from happening! Plus, did the Nestene mention the bit about trying to kill us all? I mean really, they are hardly the most trustworthy species in the galaxy!"

"True, they have a bit of a history with the Shadow Proclamation, but what you're doing here is making waves, Doctor. You're helping the Earth to advance technologically and possibly unbalancing the power politics in this sector," she explained and he sat back in his chair with a feeling of weariness coming over him. "They know very little about you, you see, you just showed up and started doing things, it makes them nervous."

"They're right, you know," Koschei sighed. "We're being careful about the technologies we're releasing, but humans are amazingly clever, they could easily find military uses for some of it at least and you remember the empire building they got up to in our universe's future."

"But those Empires weren't military in nature, by and large," Susan pointed out. "Given the choice of war versus commerce, humans tend to go for commerce first. The Great and Bountiful Human Empire was based entirely on trade connections and wormhole tariffs," she reminded them both.

"Either way, this complicates matters," the Doctor grumbled. "I just wanted to build something here, something good, something that would make people's lives better!" It was so frustrating to have to constantly fight against the forces of inertia.

"We'll have to visit the Shadow Proclamation and talk to them," Koschei groaned out, scrubbing his face with his hands.

"I can't get too far from the lab for another six weeks," Susan protested. "The embryos need constant monitoring." She was holding Koschei's hand and looking at him with something akin to panic. He knew what she was thinking, her husband had had several very close calls lately and letting him out of her sight must be a terrifying thought.

"We'll bring Dar as Koschei's baby sitter, if that will make you feel better," the Doctor teased and Shay glared at him. Susan relaxed a bit though.

"Actually, it would make me feel better," she conceded.

"I don't need a baby sitter!" he protested.

Grandfather and granddaughter exchanged pregnant glances.

"Right," the doctor drawled. "We'll bring Dar along, maybe Hedia as well."

"Good idea!" Susan agreed and Koschei crossed his arms and sulked.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N - Not much action in this bit, but a lot of character development. Thanks to my reviewers for inspiring me and also for asking questions and pointing out areas that could be fleshed out more. You are all amazing and I adore you.

Chapter 21 – So Many Regrets

Koschei kissed Susan and tried to ignore the worried look in her eyes as he released her. Dar and Hedia were already stepping into Susan's TARDIS and it did feel strange to be going somewhere in it without his wife beside him.

Baby Jenny was tucked into a carrier on Susan's chest, she'd be watching the infant while Rose and the Doctor were off dealing with the Shadow Proclamation, and it twisted something inside him to see how gently she stroked the baby, her obvious affection and affinity for something they couldn't have for themselves right then. He patted the child gently and Rose and the Doctor dropped kisses on her tiny head.

"Be good to your niece Susan, now Jen-jen," the Doctor instructed the baby, who looked up at him with an expression of disbelief.

"As if," was the mumbled baby reply and Susan grinned at him.

"I've got a lot of baby wrangling experience, Grandfather, don't worry," she assured him and he nodded.

"Don't drive Susan completely mental, Jenny," Rose told the infant with a pointed eyebrow and Jenny appeared suitably angelic for a moment or two.

"Yes, Mummy," was the more subdued answer, but Koschei suspected that Jackie Tyler's granddaughter was unlikely to remain docile for long. He kissed his wife over the baby's head and gave her a confident smirk.

"Come home safe," she pleaded and he kissed her again.

"The Doctor, Dar, and the Scout Commander will all be watching me like hawks, I'll be fine," he grumbled, still a bit irritated, but if it made Susan feel better, it was a small price to pay.

The Doctor and Rose waited patiently for Susan to say her goodbyes to him and he appreciated their forbearance. It was hard for him too. He'd nearly lost her so many times, been forced to be without her for such long stretches that he was a little paranoid of being separated from her as well. He held her for a while, her head tucked against his shoulder, with the baby complaining about the restrictions on movement and air, before releasing her.

"You be careful too, those terrorists are still out there," he reminded her and she nodded, eyes still troubled, but her chin up. He turned his back on her and went into the TARDIS, he didn't dare stop or look behind him, or he knew he wouldn't go.

* * *

Susan watched the TARDIS dematerialize and tried not to imagine a thousand horrible things happening to him. It was hard though. Lately it had seemed as though the whole universe was out to get them. She bounced Jenny in the carrier and checked her nappie with an absent motion.

"Sleepy," the baby informed her and snuggled against her.

"Just rest, then, I'll get you back to the lab and make up a bottle for you, okay?" Jenny murmured some affirmative babble and she hugged the baby very gently. She still ached to have a child of her own and as wonderful as it was to have Jenny for a few hours, while her parents ran their errand, it wasn't a real substitute for raising a child of her own. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what her children with Koschei might be like. She remembered the sweet little boy that Shay had been so long ago and smiled. It would be a joy to raise a child like that, to see him grow up without the trauma and grief his father had gone through. She would like that.

She headed back towards her lab and a tall figure stepped out into the road to intercept her.

"Father," she addressed him with far more courtesy than she had shown him in many years. He'd saved Koschei's life; she could be polite at least.

He was a good looking man, close to how images of grandfather had looked when he was quite young. Blond hair, blue eyes, a straight carriage, he was dressed with impeccable neatness and Susan wondered if he ever really just relaxed. Her mind flashed to an image of Koschei seated on the floor of the workshop, grease on his cheek, eyes filled with laughter, in jeans and a black t-shirt. The differences were profound.

"Daughter," he answered. "Could I speak with you?" She blinked in surprise. She had barely seen him since the wedding and rarely before that. He'd certainly made no effort to seek her out before this. On her chest, Jenny murmured and settled down to nap, she rocked lightly as she stood, and taking a deep breath answered him.

"It is your right," she conceded, which wasn't the most welcoming of responses, but it was still well within the formal gamut of polite behavior. He winced.

"Thank you." He took a deep breath and then gave her a formal bow. "I have come to beg your forgiveness, Susanatrevalar, for things done to you by myself, that were unforgivable." She bit down hard on her first response, which was that he was four hundred years too late with his apology, and made herself calm down, she didn't want to disturb the baby with her distress.

"I want to forgive you," she answered, abandoning the formal phrases and looking at her father with all the sadness and hurt inside of her. "I do," she told him and realized it was true. "But, it's hard. I lost my childhood because of you. I was homeless and exiled, an alien in every place I lived, for two hundred and eighty years. I spent all those years afraid, always looking over my shoulder, terrified that the Tower would catch up with me." She shook her head, trying to let go of that old fear.

"I know and I am so very sorry for that," he replied, his eyes dark with sorrow.

"When they did catch up with me Father, they tortured me, they ravaged my mind, they tried to break me apart and kill my soul. It was a thousand times worse than anything I'd imagined in my most terrible dreams." She took a deep breath. "I killed myself to keep them out of my center, Father, I stabbed myself through the throat with a knife and bled out my life on the floor of my cell, all alone." She hadn't told Grandfather that, she'd even hidden it from Koschei, afraid of how it might hurt him, but she had to make her father understand why forgiving him wasn't going to come easily to her.

"Oh, Susan," he whispered, his eyes gone desolate with the understanding of how much she'd suffered.

"Then Rassilon sent the Master in to break me. I had to fight for my life against him." She smiled and it was a pained twist of her lips. "That something so wonderful could come from something so terrible, still amazes me." She shook her head in wonder. She looked up then, meeting her father's eyes. "I then spent the next two hundred years fending off Rassilon's attempts to marry me off to some crony of his, to have me bound up and used as a vehicle for the Arkytior. I barely escaped being mind-raped by him. Only Darginian's breaking me out of prison saved me." He looked away from the raw agony in her eyes and in her mind. "Nowhere in all of that did yo ever raise either hand or voice in my defense. You never protested my treatment, nor offered me protection. So, I hope you will understand that it may take a while for me to stop hating you." It was a harsh thing to say to him, but it was the truth and she didn't have it in her to soften it just then.

"I can accept that," he told her in a voice that held regret, pain, and an understanding of his failures that would have made her feel better if there was any room in her for that. She was so tired of pain; she just wanted a peaceful life with the man she loved.

"Let's start with being civil, Father, and then see where that takes us, okay?" she asked, hoping he could see how hard she was trying to make an effort.

"That's a generous offer, Daughter, I accept," he answered and bowed to her again. She returned the bow with equal politeness and continued her journey to the lab.

It was a start, but she didn't know if she would ever be able to have any sort of father-daughter relationship with him. Too much time had passed and too many terrible things lay between them. Maybe though, she could start to put the past to rest.

Jenny's soft snores made a gentle counterpoint to her agonized thoughts.

* * *

The Doctor looked over at Rose and smiled. Five pilots at the console, it made him so happy he could barely speak. After being the only one of his kind for so long, to have other Time Lords to be around was still such a delight to him.

Especially these Time Lords. Koschei, the childhood friend he'd thought he'd lost forever, that sly smile on his face, as he teased Darginian about his haircut, sane and healing, and happier than he'd ever dreamed to be. Darginian, who had spent centuries being someone he didn't like, and who now finally had the opportunity to be on the side of the angels. Hedia, a woman he'd met only briefly during his travels, but had always found to be calm, sensible, and brave and of course, Rose. His Rose. There at his side, as she was always meant to be, and who would be at his side for the rest of their lives.

Not bad for a man who'd once thought he had no one left in all the universe.

"What exactly is wrong with my haircut?" Dar groused, glaring at Shay.

"Nothing, of course, nothing, Dar, it's the best example of modern art that I've seen in a very long while," Shay assured him with a guileless look.

"Modern art?"

"Well, actually more like a bit of Picasso, with just a touch of the Impressionists," he answered with a considering air, tilting his head from side to side, as though he were an art critic analyzing a new piece.

"I should have let those Daleks shoot you!" Dar grumbled and Shay propped his elbows on the console and grinned up at the ex-CIA agent with a winsome look.

"Aw, Dar, you _do_ love me!" he shot back and Dar rolled his eyes.

"Tit," Dar growled, but his lips were twitching and his eyes were merry.

"Are they like this often?" Hedia asked with an arched eyebrow and Rose grinned.

"Honestly they don't get to be themselves much. Andred is always watching Koschei and gets a bit twitchy when he acts silly," Rose explained and Shay frowned at her.

"I am never silly, Lady Rose," he assured her in a pompous tone, sweeping her an elegant bow. "My wife, who is never wrong, assured me that I am 'ridiculous', so please use the correct terminology!" he insisted and Rose grinned back at him.

"My humblest apologies, my Lord Koschei!" she replied and swept him an answering bow in return. "I should, of course, have said 'when you act ridiculous'!"

"Your gracious apology is accepted, my dear Lady Rose," he returned with another sweeping bow and Rose laughed at his antics.

The Doctor was grinning too, but he was a little uncomfortable with the truth that Rose had voiced. Even after more than a year, Andred still had a repressive effect on Koschei. His natural ebullience, and his rather warped sense of humor, all had to be toned down around some of the others and it wasn't fair. It was understandable, but still not fair.

They were working the console, Shay covering two positions, since he was the best pilot amongst them, but the laughter and teasing wasn't even slowed by their concentration on flying.

"Susan doesn't mind your jokes, though, right?" the Doctor asked Koschei suddenly, still worrying. Shay looked up at him with a serious expression, as though he could see the Doctor's concerns and shook his head.

"Susan loved me even when I was a psychopath, Doctor, she's never wanted anything more for me than that I have the freedom to become the person I want to be," he answered and those crystal blue eyes were studying him, making sure he understood.

"I'm glad to hear that," he replied and Shay grinned.

"She would perhaps be a bit happier if I didn't make some sorts of jokes in public, but her worst form of censorship is that eye-roll of hers, which isn't exactly fierce."

"Yeah, it'd help her cause a bit if she wasn't giggling when you made those jokes, either," Rose put in and Shay smirked at her.

"There is that, as well," he agreed.

"Arrival at the Shadow Proclamation," Hedia announced, her face impassive, and the Doctor wondered what she thought of them all. She was so self-possessed it was hard to tell sometimes.

"Well, let's go face the music," Rose muttered and blew out her breath.

"Allons-y!" The Doctor grinned and bounced out the doors, wondering what brilliant thing he'd have to do today.

* * *

Rose was right on her husband's heels as they exited the TARDIS, with Koschei, Dar, and Hedia right behind them.

They were in a huge arboretum of some sort with high glass paned walls and ceilings that showed the endless depths of space outside. Inside plants from thousands of different worlds grew in terraces with white retaining walls, stepping downwards to a tiled plaza with inset mosaics of intertwined circles at the center of it.

Aliens of every conceivable type, and some that Rose had never actually conceived of, moved up and down the broad white staircases that passed through the terraces, or stood amongst the plants in clusters, talking to each other.

It was a lot for the ex-shop girl to take in and she clasped her hand around the Doctor's as she worked to adapt to her environment.

"You alright?" he asked.

"It's funny, you know. I can go for months or years dealing with the weirdest things imaginable and be quite fine, but then something like this comes along and I suddenly feel so very far from home," she told him and he nodded.

"We are very far from home, Rose."

"Not true," Hedia interrupted. She looked at Rose and touched her chest where her hearts were. "Home is right here." For a woman who looked like a thoroughbred race horse that had escaped from its pen and gone to live rough, Hedia, it seemed, had a poet's heart, Rose thought to herself.

"You're right Hedia, absolutely," Rose answered giving the Time Lady a broad smile.

"Let's go find the Shadow Architect," the Doctor murmured and they trooped off. It surprised Rose that no one seemed to be paying any attention to the Time Lords tromping through their base. They'd materialized in a public place and no one was even questioning their right to be there.

A glowing white circle of light appeared in front of her and Malla's swift warning made her step back, just as a bunch of four meter high marshmallow creatures appeared in the center of the glow. Apparently people beamed into and out of this place all the time without comment. How interesting.

"Adipose," Darginian murmured and rattled off something to the one in front that sounded rather like dolphin noises to her. The TARDIS translation circuits told her it was a greeting and that the sound like rubber balls bouncing was a return greeting, but it was just odd enough a language that even the TARDIS was reduced to vague generalizations.

"They're made of fat," Malla told her and Rose felt a bit ill as the creatures lumbered off, like huge Crisco sculptures, wobbly and a bit greasy.

"Ewwww," she replied in her mind.

"I have to admit that there are more appealing species in the universe, though they are really cute as infants," Malla admitted.

"Still ewwwwww." Malla laughed in the back of her head.

* * *

Malcolm Taylor was quite sure that Ellasiira was the most brilliant physicist he'd ever had the privilege of working with. However, he had noticed that her brilliance was mostly in the area of theoretical work. When it came to actual practical applications, she was far less able. His job was often to listen to her ramble, then steer her towards solutions that didn't involve detonating stars, lighting the atmosphere on fire, or collapsing the space time continuum.

"Well, if we streamed tachyon particles through a Feydor Archon Energy Collector and then magnified the graviton waves by a factor of 13.8536, I bet we could fast grow a temporal rift and use the energy to set up an oscillating dampener around the Eye of Harmony," she muttered and he blanched.

"What effect would a temporal rift have on the Eye itself," he asked her, doing the math with rapid strokes on the computer and coming up with an answer that made his heart stutter in fear.

"That's a good point," she conceded. "You're really smart!" Ellasiira smiled at him, her cheeks dimpling in the most adorable way, and he dropped his head into his hands. It was like having charge of an incredibly cute, but utterly destructive, puppy sometimes, he thought wearily to himself.

"How about if we supercharge the Archon energy and cycle it through a supernova?" she asked instead and Malcolm Taylor tried not to believe that the universe could accidently be destroyed by a freckle faced, three hundred year old girl, with the emotional development of a toddler, and an intellect that would shame Einstein, Feynman, and Heisenberg, but since it was all too likely a scenario, he couldn't convince himself.

He really regretted coming to this planet, sometimes.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22 – The Shadow Architect

Rose followed the Doctor, in danger of getting whiplash as she turned about to look at all the different races collected here. Koschei she noted, seemed to be somewhat grim faced suddenly and she slipped up beside him.

"You okay?" He turned to look at her and she was hit with a wave of remorse from him. He shook his head.

"I may not have been responsible for all of my actions, but I was still the vehicle through which a lot of suffering happened. Some of these races are extinct in our universe and I was the one who destroyed them," he explained and she nodded, seeing the full gamut of his feelings and suddenly realizing just what Susan was up against. She sorted through what she could sense from him and found a strong base inside of him that made her smile.

"I know that reminding you that you weren't the one to blame isn't going to change how you feel about being used that way, so I'll just tell you this: Once you realized what had been done to you, you were willing to die to save the Doctor. The first thing you did when you got free of your madness was to protect your best friend. That's who you really are. You are the man that protects the people he loves. You are the man who builds machines to save lives, to defend people who need to be defended. You were never the person they tried to make you into, you were always the man who didn't want to hurt Susan," she told him softly and he looked at her, those blue eyes so luminous, and a small smile tugged his lips up. He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thanks," he answered and kept walking. The Doctor turned and looked at her in surprise, but, she noted, no jealousy, which was kind of novel.

"What did you say to him?" he asked.

"I told him that you had lusted after him for years and he ought to jump you first chance," she teased and the Doctor made a face at her.

"Rose!" he scolded. "No, really, what did you say?"

"What he needed to hear; the truth," she answered and smiled at his frustration. After all, it wasn't as though Koschei needed his pain and insecurity advertised and the Doctor already had enough angst about him to fill an ocean.

* * *

Kate Stewart was starting to think she'd been mad to take on this job. Sure her father looked ten years younger and she was actually standing on an alien world, but the sheer insanity of trying to rebuild a planet from the ground up was killing her.

She was sitting in her temporary office while the construction on the Torchwood and UNIT buildings continued. She had a computer on her desk that, for reasons she could not quite grasp, smelled like spaghetti and a desk that looked like it was hand carved by artisans, but had actually been fabricated by nano machines. The chair was incredibly comfortable, but the office space was actually an ancient shop front that opened on the central plaza, across from the rather impressive domed central meeting building. For some reason there were also a bunch of large, rather ugly statues of Time Lords stashed in the back part of her office.

The consequence of this was that she could sit at her desk, which faced the window and watch the rebuilding of Gallifrey, or she could turn the desk and have the ancient, prune faced statues staring at her.

She chose the window.

At least the view, while chaotic, was ever changing. The reddish light took a while to get used to, as did the fact that the days were slightly longer. It made it hard to always synch her time on Earth with her time on Gallifrey, so sometimes she was here as the suns were rising and sometimes she was here in the silvery night, watching the moons rising above them.

As she was running a search for financial transactions related to the bombing at Regent's Park, Tony Tyler ran past, chased by his wheezing mother, and chasing a bunch of the feline lemur things that lived in the wooded area just outside the city.

She put her head back down to work, just as an explosion rocked the physics lab, and she sighed. Ellasiira apparently was able to get something done without Malcolm's being fast enough to stop her. Kate made a note to hire at least four more keepers for the mad scientist Time Lady. No, make that five, Malcolm needed to sleep sometimes.

She checked her last search string and ran another one and Pete Tyler walked by, loudly arguing with one of the contractors about the problem of Gallifreyan microbes in the air conditioning system. Kate rubbed her eyes, so glad that Pete was still in charge of the building projects.

She managed to get a few forms filled out and Colonel Andred walked by, carrying what appeared to be fire extinguishers with a rapid step. She tried not to think about what he needed them for.

Leela was next, running by at an easy jog, a bedraggled trail of UNIT and Torchwood soldiers behind her. Kate was pleased that the UNIT soldiers looked to be doing better than the Torchwood folks, but Leela still looked fresh and cheerful and Kate wondered which of the soldiers was going to poison her first.

Evarian was after that, pushing Dr. Davis' wheelchair and having a conversation about cultural differences between Earth and Gallifrey.

"So, wait, how did you manage to relegate your women to an inferior position?" Evarian asked with a bewildered expression. "Didn't they protest? If I tried that with a Time Lady, I'd be lucky to come away with my frontal lobes intact!"

The human doctor's laughter drowned out whatever else the Time Lord might have said. Kate smiled at the exchange, his sheer disbelief made her feel better about the Gallifreyans for a moment.

Davian, head cocked, eyes full of hero worship, and arms full of an old telescope, came following along after Wilfred Mott, who was gesticulating and talking about astronomy to the young man.

"You see, Davie, Venus, because it has an orbit inclined by 3.4° relative to the Earth's, usually appears to pass under or over the Sun at inferior conjunctions. A transit occurs when Venus reaches conjunction with the Sun at or near one of its nodes, the longitude where Venus passes through the Earth's orbital plane, and appears to pass directly across the Sun," he explained and the dark skinned boy nodded vigorously. "Now there are several planets in your system here that have similar transits…" he was saying, as he passed out of her hearing, and she smiled.

Donna Noble and one of Kate's UNIT soldiers, Stuart McDonald, strolled by soon afterwards, carrying picnic accessories, but with their heads closely together, eyes on each other. Kate suspected that they would be paying far more attention to each other than they would be to any planetary bodies. Kate sighed. Ah, love. She was so very glad to be done with all of that nonsense.

Susan walked by soon after, baby Jenny strapped to her chest and her face pensive.

"Susan?" she called out and the Time Lady turned and smiled at her.

"Afternoon, Kate," she replied, as calm and polite as always. She was the easiest of them all to deal with, except for maybe Rose. She seemed to have much more experience with humans than the rest. Well, the Doctor had apparently had lots of experience, but mostly in short bursts, he never seemed to stay put anywhere for very long.

"Could I bother you for a moment?" Kate asked and Susan nodded and came into the office to talk to her.

"How can I help?" she asked and settled into a chair, absently stroking the baby's head, while she listened attentively.

"It's about the terrorist attacks, actually," she informed her and saw the way Susan's distress shadowed her eyes for the briefest of instants, but never reached her face. The ginger haired Time Lady had the most amazing poker face; Kate would never play cards with her. "We've been finding some interesting evidence that I can't interpret as well as I'd like," she continued and Susan cocked her head in interest.

"Such as?"

"Mysterious Swiss bank accounts that seem to have deposits, but no depositors, for instance."

"Computer transfers?" Susan asked and Kate nodded. "I'll assume that you have tried to trace the origins of the data?" Another nod. "May I?" she asked and Kate rose and let her slip into her place.

Susan pulled out her sonic screwdriver and set it on the desk. Kate noted that it was smaller and more sophisticated than the ones that had been issued to Torchwood. She was torn between pleasure that the Gallifreyans had been careful about tech leak, and deeply curious about what they were choosing to hold back.

Susan typed away madly on the computer for a while, writing programs on the fly with an ease and sophistication that Kate rather envied. She ran a couple of searches and when an answer popped up. She frowned and leaned back in the chair, Jenny still sleeping against her chest. She used the sonic screwdriver to fast forward through several pages of data at a high speed and frowned more deeply.

"Well?" Kate asked, still puzzled by the data on the screen.

"They are originating from this satellite right here," she answered, pointing at the tracking data on the screen.

"How is that possible?" Kate asked.

"It's possible if the money is coming from off-world," Susan answered and her face was hard and angry, all her calm dispassion gone. Those sweet, warm brown eyes had gone flinty and dark. There were hundreds of years of knowledge and power crackling around her and Kate took a step back. It was like being too near to a lightning strike, or the gathering tension before a storm broke. It was the first time that she realized on a visceral level that nice, friendly Susan was an alien, a potentially dangerous alien at that.

Susan took a deep breath and seemed to just suck all of that back inside of herself, becoming the nice helpful doctor again in a moment. Kate couldn't forget the moment where she had been afraid of her, though. It both showed her how much self-control Susan had, as well as how much she had underestimated the other woman. It gave her a lot to think about.

"I need to get back to Earth and set up a tracking program on that satellite. I want to know who exactly is funding and directing this."

"I can arrange that," Kate agreed and Susan looked at her with sympathetic eyes.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Kate," she apologized. Kate winced that she was so transparent and nodded.

"You lost ten children. You have a right to be angry."

"My people have always had a very low birth rate, Kate. Children were rare and very precious to us. Many of our harshest punishments were reserved for those who harmed children. Because we had so few of them, everyone communally cared for them. They went to the Academy at eight, but were constantly surrounded by people who cared for them. Teachers, mentors, older classmates, they were always protected. It was a sacred duty, understood by every one of us at a bone deep level that we would protect any child around us. We have many stories and tales about complete strangers sacrificing a life to protect a child. It's an instinct that is bred in us. Losing ten children wasn't just a tragedy for us, Kate, it was a failure." She paused, took a breath and looked Kate in the eyes. "We failed in the first duty of every Time Lord. We failed to protect the future."

There was a moment of bleakness that passed over her face and Kate nodded her understanding. It would have been like if Kate had failed to stop an alien invasion, a failure of her duty as an officer of UNIT and as a human being to protect her people.

"Thank you for explaining that to me," Kate replied and Susan gave her a wry look that told her she understood the subtexts there quite well.

"I'll get on that trace program." She rose carefully from the chair, trying not to disturb the sleeping baby and headed out. "I'll have something ready to go in about an hour."

"It'll take you that long to write the program?" Kate asked with a raised eyebrow of disbelief.

"No, it will take that long for me to get Jenny's nappie changed, give her a bottle, and then convince Romana to babysit her while I'm on Earth," she informed her with a tiny smile.

"You know, I could babysit her, if you wanted," Kate found herself volunteering and Susan looked at her with a surprised expression.

"You?"

"If you'd feel comfortable with that arrangement, of course," Kate replied, realizing that she was essentially a stranger to Susan still.

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart." Susan smiled at her. "There is no family in all the world I would trust more than yours." Kate tried not to feel warm and very flattered, but failed at that rather dismally. For all that the Time Lords were ancient and powerful, these ones here at least, were also very hard not to like.

* * *

Rose watched her husband, with his arms folded and brows drawn down, and knew the discussion was not going well.

"You must understand our position!" the Shadow Architect insisted.

"The position that the people who tried to kill us all have to be listened to as a source of credible information, while the victims of their attack must obviously be at fault?" he asked her in a scathing tone and the pale white skin of the Architect flushed an alarming shade of pink.

"The position that you show up one day out of nowhere, with highly advanced technology none of us has ever seen before, and start building up two worlds in wildly different sectors with that tech! The position that suddenly a class five world is getting a boost in its development that could launch it into class seven status within a hundred years! The position that you are high powered telepaths, with time travel technology, and we know nothing about your motivations, your goals, your methods, or whether you are hostile or not!" she shouted and the Doctor looked ready to start shouting back. Rose placed a hand on his arm and he turned to look at her.

"She's right and you know it. They don't know anything about us and it's not at all unreasonable for them to be cautious about us," she told him and he took a deep breath, struggling for control.

"Thank you, Miss Tyler," the Architect answered, calming down visibly. "I am willing to listen to you, I am more than willing to learn about you, but I have to protect the intelligent life forms of this galaxy and that duty must come first for me."

"Exactly right," the Doctor sighed out. "Of course it does. I'm sorry for my outburst. The Nestene Consciousness tried to kill the very few of us who survived the cataclysm of our world's destruction and the terror of that hasn't really faded yet, so, again, I'm sorry," he apologized and she nodded, her red eyes filled with understanding. He scrubbed at his face, looking weary to the bone, and sat back down. "What would you like to know?" he asked.

"What are your intentions?" she asked.

"In our own universe, the Time Lords, our people, monitored time travel, maintained the integrity of the timelines, kept the walls between universes translatable, repaired paradoxes, and all that. We, the people who survived, could rebuild the infrastructure for all of that, given time, but we can't staff an agency for monitoring, policing, and repair, all on our own. It was our hope, at some point, to contact you, find out if there were any other time sensitive races here and put together something with you to fulfill those functions," he told her and her face went still as the implications became clear to her.

"You would share your tech with us, including time travel?" she asked.

"We'd have to, to make this work. There would be rules of course, for us as well as you. Only time sensitives could engage in repairs, since the ability to see fixed temporal points is crucial to not mucking up history, but monitors could be from any race," he continued and she nodded.

"That's eminently reasonable. What about medical tech and military tech?" she asked next and the Doctor frowned.

"Medical, of course, but not military. I don't like guns, I don't like the people who use them, and I won't supply people with the means to kill themselves more efficiently," he retorted with a deep frown and she nodded.

"We will need to discuss this further," she told them and rang for refreshments. "But I am deeply relieved so far."

Rose let out her breath. It looked like they weren't going to be arrested today. That was good.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23 – Forging Ahead

"Yet, you are arming the Earth," the Shadow Architect pointed out, her pale hair starting to come free from the elaborate hair style she wore. Rose nibbled at something pale and gelatinous that tasted rather like peanut butter, and took a sip of some sort of fruit juice that was very refreshing, watching the interplay between the Doctor and the Architect.

"No," Koschei interrupted. "I set up sensors and defensive screens, but no offensive capabilities. I was very careful to use tech that couldn't easily be turned to offensive use either. We have all seen enough of war to last us for the next thousand lifetimes. We don't ever want to be part of another one." He was glaring at the floor, arms crossed, and his pain was palpable in the room.

"I see. That is also quite reasonable and, honestly, a bit of a help. There are enough warlike factions in the Alliance that adding in new weapons mixes would only make the political situation even more precarious." She leaned back in her chair and eyed them all.

"As for our other goals," the Doctor continued. "We want to rebuild our world, repopulating it with our own kind, but we would also welcome colonists with peaceful intentions and a desire for co-existence. We used to have institutions of higher learning on Gallifrey that were respected throughout the universe. Rebuilding that, creating an academic and research center again, something that could better the lives of everyone, would make me very happy, even if it would take a bit of time to establish."

"A bit of time?" the Architect laughed. "Hundreds of years, no doubt!"

"I'm already over nine hundred years old, Madame Architect," he informed her and she blinked in surprise. "I can expect to live thousands of more years. I am not concerned about the time it would take; I am concerned about the impact. I don't want Gallifrey to be a problem for the Alliance, or the Shadow Proclamation, I don't want to be a bone of contention, tossed between empires. I just want a home world for my people, a place to raise our children in safety." He ran a hand through his hair, tousling it in a way that Rose found adorable, and the Shadow Architect nodded her understanding.

"My own race is time sensitive, Doctor, so as my people would gain by your offer, I cannot make the final decision on this, it would not be fair," she told him with serious eyes and he nodded. "I will have to bring this up in a Security Council session and see what happens."

Koschei's jacket started to beep and he looked at the Architect in apology, checking a small device that he took from his pocket.

"My wife, excuse me," he explained and stepped back to let them keep talking. The Shadow Architect frowned.

"This room is supposed to be shielded from all communications devices," she grumbled and the Doctor winced.

"Sub-wave carrier network, my apologies, Madame Architect," he informed her and she nodded.

"What?" Koschei shouted. "Black Holes and Paradoxes! Are you certain? Did you run a Teserdani triangulation algorithm? ... Bloody hell! " he swore and the Doctor raised an eyebrow. Rose was surprised, she rarely saw Shay getting angry and he looked incandescent with rage just then. He listened further and calmed down a bit. "Yes, love, of course, I know you would have done that first. I'm sorry, it's just… yes, as you say. I'll tell the Doctor. I love you, get home safe. … Yes, I'll tell them that as well." He put away the device and stood for a long moment, staring at the floor, as though he wanted to undo the last few minutes.

"Koschei?" Rose asked him and he looked up at her and gave her a pained and rather lopsided smile.

"First, Susan wants you to know that she left Jenny with Kate Stewart when she went back to Earth and that the baby is fine," he told her and she nodded, feeling deeply relieved that her daughter was safe.

"So what happened?" the Doctor asked next.

"Madame Architect," Koschei turned to address the still and silent woman who was watching them all with a confused expression.

"Yes?"

"I wish to bring a formal complaint against the Draconian Empire," he told her.

"What?" the Doctor, Dar, and Rose all exclaimed. The Architect merely frowned.

"What have they done this time," she asked with a resigned expression.

"The Earth government was able to trace the funding for the terrorist attacks on our worlds and people to a satellite but no further. My wife was able to trace the transmissions from the satellite to a stealthed Draconian warship in Mars orbit."

After another eruption of outraged anger, Rose watched the Shadow Architect drop her head into her hands.

"I wish I could say that that surprises me, but they have long had their eye on that sector of space and the possibility that you would set up the Earth as a small empire of its own to block their expansion into that area would naturally occur to them."

"And so they killed our children?" the Doctor asked the Architect and there was that look in his eyes that Rose knew so well. It was his "Oncoming Storm" face and she crossed quickly to his side, slipping her fingers into his. He shot her a glance, read her concern, and then visibly calmed himself.

"Of course, if it turns out to be true," she raised a hand to forestall their ire. "Then we will bring charges against them."

"Thank you," Rose murmured, before the Doctor could start shouting. Once the Doctor started shouting there was no guarantee that he wouldn't start leveling planets, she sighed to herself. She had never actually seen him level a planet and she wanted to keep it that way.

* * *

Andred sat in the chair, listening and trying not to get angry. Col. Mace was giving the UNIT briefing, since this was a purely military operation just then, and he was trying to let the other man's voice be his only focus. He was most especially trying not to think about the children. If he didn't think about them, then he wouldn't grab some weapons and go attack the Draconian Empire single-handed. He figured that he could take out several million of them before they killed him.

Beside him, Leela shot him a look that told him she was reading his mind without the need for telepathy again. He quickly scotched his plans to take on the Draconians alone and thought good obedient thoughts as hard as he could.

"So, we don't have weapons that can reach them from Earth, but we can jam their transmissions and let them know that we know they're out there. I am also releasing to the press who is behind the attacks on us all and how they were funding terrorism here. I think that should scotch their attempts to recruit anyone else to do their dirty work as well." The Colonel looked around at them all and Andred wondered for a moment about the possibility of just building one little, itty bitty, long range D-mat gun. Even if he missed the shot, it would really make him feel better. Leela glared at him and he sighed, setting that plan aside as well.

"I have just talked to Susan," Kate Stewart told them as she came in. "She called the Doctor and told him about the Draconians and he's asking the Shadow Proclamation to bring charges against them. I don't know if that means anything, but it's done regardless."

"It does mean something," Andred informed them. "While they work to prove or disprove the charges, a military and economic blockade can be enforced against the Draconian Empire. Should the charges be proved, they can be tried by the Galactic Alliance for violation of a class five world, which is a very serious charge. We, as refugees, also have a certain amount of political protection. Attacking us could be seen as genocide, as we are the last survivors of out race." He shrugged. "Either way it puts them into a difficult position while this all gets worked through."

"Politics!" Kate sneered and Col. Mace nodded in vigorous assent. At last, Andred thought to himself, something they both agree on.

"Politics backed up with fleets of starships," he pointed out and they nodded.

* * *

Susan, Jenny cradled against her, waited impatiently, foot tapping.

"There is still another ten minutes before they are due back," Romana reminded her with a wry smile and Susan shrugged.

"That's even assuming that anything Grandfather is helping pilot can land in the estimated time frame or on the right planet," she snarked back and Romana laughed.

"Yes, well, that is true," she agreed and James raised an eyebrow in enquiry at his wife.

"Oh dearest," she chuckled. "Let me tell you about the many times the Doctor promised me a trip somewhere and we ended up halfway across the galaxy from the intended destination!"

"Oh that's nothing!" Susan laughed. "There were just ages when he couldn't pilot it at all! I went to school on Mars, when he'd rather hoped to take me to Atlantis, but he pretended he'd meant it all along, since he hated to admit that he couldn't fly her at all!" They all laughed, though she hadn't thought it was so funny back then. They'd been stuck on Mars for six years while he tried to work out why the TARDIS wouldn't dematerialize again.

"He never has fixed the Chameleon circuit either!" Romana reminded them and they all doubled over laughing.

"Centuries as a blue police box and he's never fixed it!" Susan gasped out.

"The really weird thing is that even so, no one ever notices!" Romana chortled. "Alien planets, ancient earth history, the far future, and no one ever paid attention to the large blue box standing right there!" They were on the ground now, Susan rocking the baby as she howled with laughter and Romana lying on the ground and laughing.

"And then, the way he talks to it!" Susan wheezed.

"Sexy!" Romana shouted and they were laughing too hard to speak, while James looked at them with a smile, slightly baffled by the merriment.

Susan's TARDIS materialized and the Doctor popped out first. Susan and Roman looked at each other and laughed even harder.

"What?" he asked.

"You don't actually call your TARDIS "Sexy", do you?" James asked, just as Rose and the rest came out.

"No!" the Doctor denied and the two Time Ladies kept laughing. He looked behind him and Rose was covering her mouth to smother her giggles.

"He does, yeah," Rose admitted and Dar started chuckling.

"I do not!" the Doctor insisted.

"Yes, he does," Koschei informed James with an expressive eye-roll.

Rose went and picked up Jenny, cuddling her and cooing, while her husband eyed her resentfully.

"Do not," he repeated.

"Sorry, Doctor, but you do," Dar sighed and patted him on the shoulder as he went past and the Doctor pouted. Hedia said nothing, but her eyebrow was eloquent.

Susan got distracted after that by her husband's enthusiastic greetings. She lost track of the discussion, unable to focus on anything but his lips warm on hers and his arms holding her against him.

"Oh for goodness sake! Would you two come up for air!" Grandfather snarked and Koschei reluctantly released her, looking at his friend with a smug expression.

"Sorry," he replied in a voice that told them all that he was anything but.

"Right," Grandfather drawled his disbelief and Susan chuckled.

"So, how did it go?" she asked, still not letting go of her husband, but at least paying attention to the others. She stayed pressed against him, her head on his shoulder, just breathing in his scent and feeling herself relaxing. He was home and safe, she could breathe freely again.

"The Architect initiated an investigation. She'll keep us apprised of any actions being taken and if and when we need to testify about it. How have things been on your end?" Grandfather asked her, only half his attention on the conversation, the other half on his wife and daughter. Jenny was pleased to see them both, since she had her Daddy rather firmly wrapped around her finger, and since Mummy came with the preferred food source.

"Colonel Mace has jammed the Draconian transmissions and informed the public about the source of funding for the terrorists. People are rather outraged that "bad aliens" are trying to hurt "their aliens". Most interestingly, several governments have noticed that the Draconians are worried that we might be able to help Earth get a real foothold as players in galactic politics. This makes them wonder what that might look like. The UN is talking about setting up an embassy, or some sort of planetary representative, with the idea of a unified voice for Earth at some point," Susan told him and he blinked.

"We really are changing history," he murmured, with a slightly worried look.

"I don't know that we are," Romana pointed out. "We haven't visited the future of this universe and it already diverges from our universe in several key areas."

"This Earth is certainly more advanced than the one in the Prime universe," Koschei added with a nod of agreement at Romana. "Then there is the fact that our own race was wiped out here so long ago. Who knows how much has been changed by that one thing alone?" He shrugged and the Doctor nodded, but still looked unconvinced.

"Well, that's easy then, let's just peek ahead and see," Susan suggested and they all looked at her in surprise, as though it hadn't even occurred to them.

"We can't travel on our own timeline!" Darginian protested.

"We don't have to! All we need to do is pick a distant planet, go forwards and check to see if there are any major timeline collapses, or fixed points that need to be taken into account," she explained and they all looked at her.

"Brilliant!" the Doctor cried and jumped about in excitement.

Koschei was looking at her with an expression of pride and she flushed a bit. She still never felt quite as clever as her Grandfather or husband, but it was nice sometimes to be reminded that she was more than just the person who patched them all back together again when they were injured.

* * *

Rose and the Doctor took Jenny to her baby play date together and once more Rose was amazed by the differences between the Time Lords and humans.

The first session had been Eddy and Matilda's Mums, herself, the Doctor, and Jenny. After that, the Doctor had a conversation with the other two Dads and they hadn't missed a session since. Privately Eddy's Mum, Denise had also informed Rose that both men had suddenly started helping with dishes and housework as well.

Denise didn't know quite what he'd said to them, but she wanted him to start giving lectures to the UK Feminista chapters. Rose's mind had boggled at the thought and she'd had trouble not laughing out loud at the suggestion. She suspected he'd do a great job terrorizing the male population of Earth. The Oncoming Storm was still an intimidating fellow, even with a papoose on his chest.

Rose set Jenny on the floor and listened to the baby's pretending that the other two infants were not present. There was a deep well of self-centeredness in babies that had surprised Rose, but the Doctor had explained that it was a survival mechanism. A selfless baby might not get fed by a forgetful mother.

"So, you went off to another planet, Rose? What was it like, were there aliens?" Cobie, Matilda's Mum asked with her wide dark eyes riveted on Rose.

"Cobie, I'm an alien," Rose reminded her and Cobie waved it off.

"Yeah, but you look human," she was told.

"Actually, you lot look Time Lord," the Doctor interrupted with a grin. "Our race is much older after all." Cobie rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Well, whichever way it works!" she conceded.

"There were some pretty weird aliens there actually," Rose admitted.

"Now Rose, don't be species-ist!" the Doctor scolded.

"I'm sorry, I could handle the upright rhinoceros people and the people who were all white, or red, or blue, but the walking fat was a bit much!" she told him.

"What they were just fat?" Lawson, Cobie's husband asked, his West African accent pronounced in his surprise.

"No, no, they weren't just fat, they were made of fat! White, gelatin things, like Trex shortening on legs!" she told them and the humans all made faces.

"The Adipose have an ancient civilization," the Doctor informed her sternly. "They also have a great terror of deep fryers," he added and they all broke into laughter.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N - We're getting to the end of the time where Power of Three gives me a year to play with. Until we get to what happens with the Question, I really can't go too much further. So I will be writing some filler bits instead. Stuff about Darginian, Romana and James, Andred and Leela, the Doctor and Rose, etc. It will take place before J-P. Look for it under my profile, since some of the pairings might be odd and a couple of them will be rated 'M' (but nothing with important plot bits) :)

Chapter 24 – Being Domestic

It was a warm summer Saturday, the windows were open and a cool breeze blew through, keeping the day from being too hot. Koschei finished piling the components on the shelf and frowned out the window of the lab he shared with the Doctor. They were just across the plaza from Susan's medical lab and school, but the shelves were under the windows that opened on the curving tiled pathway that led off towards the fields of red grass and the Silvertree groves outside the main city.

On the pathway was Tony, along with Davian, and a bunch of other children, sun browned boys and girls, all of them mud-splattered and dirty. The workers, soldiers, and scientists moving to Gallifrey had brought their children with them. Many had simply moved into some of the abandoned housing, patching up the rundown homes, while some lived in the Quonset huts in the Plaza. He'd been aware of that, but he hadn't really thought though what that would mean to Davian and Tony.

"He's a freak! He's not a kid, he's grownup!" one of the boys taunted, a skinny tow-headed child with a working class accent, and Davian looked as though he was going to cry.

"He is too a kid and he's my best mate, so you watch your mouth, Gerry!" Tony shouted and it looked like a fight was about to erupt.

Koschei wrenched open the window and stared out at the children, who spun about in a panic at the sight of one of the dreaded adults.

"You're not very smart are you, Gerry?" he commented to the boy doing the shouting, who looked shocked to be addressed.

"What?" The kid craned his neck around and looked up at him.

"Do you really think that just being tall makes you a grownup?" he told him in a scathing tone. A couple of the other children drew back from him a bit, scuffing their shoes on the tiles and looking as though they would like to be elsewhere.

"Well, yeah…" Gerry responded hesitantly, as though he was suddenly doubting the reality he'd always known. Koschei sneered at him and rolled his eyes.

"So, how old do you think I am?" he asked next.

"I dunno? Sixty?" Gerry answered and Koschei heard the Doctor chortling behind him. He knew he looked about forty to a human, but ignored that, the boy was probably about eight or nine; to him all adults looked old.

"Try over nine hundred years old," he shot back, with a shark's grin, and Gerry's jaw dropped.

"Blimey! Really?" the other kids were also flabbergasted and Tony was nodding sagely, a child-sized witness to this shocking truth.

"We age differently than humans like yourself do, kid. Davian is about eight now in your years. He just wants to play, give him a chance," he continued and the kids looked at Davian and Tony rather skeptically. "You're also missing an important fact here. Davian is tall. Tall and eight years old. He can reach things that you can't. Think about it." He winked at the boys, whose minds were already whirling with ideas, as they studied the tall dark-skinned young man before them. Davian shot him a look of gratitude. Koschei nodded at him and shut the window.

He'd been the boy no one would play with and he knew how much it hurt. The Doctor, like Tony, had been the only kid to accept him as he was. He wished some adult had spoken up for him when he'd been little.

"You're going to get Davian in trouble with their parents," the Doctor pointed out, with a smile.

"Which will make them like and respect him even more. There is nothing that bonds children together more quickly than a shared punishment, if you recall," he reminded the Doctor, who grinned up at him in remembered glee. He looked not much older in that moment than Tony or the kids outside and Koschei grinned back at him.

"Your mother, who was normally so sweet and gentle…" he chortled and the memory was equally clear in his mind; his slender, lovely, waif-like mother, screaming and chasing them through the halls, while the pearls, dripping from the broken strand, were raining down behind them and clattering on the inlaid wood floors.

The memory of her death intruded suddenly and the smile fell away from his face.

"Shay! I'm sorry! I didn't think!" the Doctor exclaimed and looked at him with a stricken expression.

"I know that my father drove her to it, that it was more about him than about me, but I still felt so guilty, if I'd been sane, could I have done more for her?"

"You were still little more than a boy back then," the Doctor reminded him and he nodded, but it changed nothing. The pain was still so terrible.

"Hey love," Susan murmured as she walked into the lab. Her eyes on his were concerned and she looked lovely to him, even in her lab coat with her tablet still clutched in one hand.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," he apologized, realizing that she was here in response to his distress. She smiled at him and walked into his arms.

"What's the point of all this if we can't be there for each other?" she whispered and he hugged her against him, breathing in the faint scent of lavender that always wafted around her. It soothed him and he relaxed, just having her there made things easier somehow.

"I just wish I could have saved her is all," he told the Doctor from the comfort of Susan's arms.

"Just chalk it up to yet another crime we can lay at Rassilon's feet," the Doctor sighed out.

"I hate to be vindictive," Susan grumbled. "But, I really hope he suffered as he died."

"I have no doubts that he did," the Doctor answered, his face shadowed by all that he had seen at the end, and Susan sighed. Koschei gave his friend a wry smile, it seemed to be the day for eliciting painful memories.

"Sorry, Grandfather," she apologized and her eyes on him were gentle. He nodded and shrugged.

"What's there to say? We're all just trying to put ourselves back together again."

* * *

Romana gave James the 'look' and he paused and quickly checked his assumptions. She was handing him his dirty dish and he quickly took it and walked with it into the kitchen. Rose looked up from the sink and smiled.

"Thank you, James," she told him, not only unsurprised that a man was bringing her dirty dishes, but acting as though it was expected. Right. Keep that in mind, he told himself.

This equality between the sexes thing was tricky, he noted for the two hundredth or so time. His homeworld might have been more technologically advanced than Earth was, but socially it was still pretty backwards. He was learning that at a very rapid pace.

"You're welcome," he answered and went to get more plates. Romana was collecting the remains of their lunch and he quickly went to help her. She rewarded him with a broad smile.

"You're wonderful," she told him and he felt a thousand feet tall. It was a complex dance he was learning, but very rewarding.

* * *

Hedia was watching the careful way that Darginian wasn't looking at Agent Murray and the equally careful way she wasn't looking at him and wondered if they actually thought they were hiding the feelings they had for each other.

It was a little difficult for her to watch, she'd started feeling a few things for Dar herself. It was still just a tentative awareness that he was smart, fast, capable, and good looking, but she had never been one for self-deceit. She knew full well that if she spent too much time around the ex-agent, she'd fall for him. Right now, that seemed like a really bad idea.

"The reports on the Draconian Ship's exit route," Agent Murray handed him a folder and he nodded without looking up.

"Thank you," he answered and she shot him an anguished glance and then turned to go. Her glance at Hedia was not friendly and Hedia couldn't blame her in the least, so she just nodded politely, which confused the much younger woman. She left the office and Hedia turned to contemplate the man behind the desk.

"You need to fix that," she told him and he jerked up, startled and a bit unnerved.

"How would suggest I go about doing that?" he asked with a frown and she sat back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling, thinking it through.

"Date her, or transfer her away, this is just cruel to you both," she answered and he winced.

"I'll transfer her, you're right," he sighed out and she could see that he was torn about the decision.

"You want that?" she asked him and he scrubbed at his face with his hands, his indecision plain.

"I just can't get involved, Hedia. She's human and I just can't go through the agony of watching her age and die," he explained and she nodded. She could certainly understand that, but he was missing a few points there.

"You could die first," she pointed out and he frowned. After all, his job was dangerous, there were people trying to kill them all and he was hanging out with the Doctor, the biggest danger magnet in the known universe.

"The likelihood is fairly slim," he shrugged. "I'd probably regenerate first and then she'd have to deal with that as well. She's in her thirties, her life span is likely to be barely a hundred years," he told her and Hedia nodded. She knew the numbers as well as he did.

"Love can't count," she told him and he winced again. She'd obviously hit him in a sore spot.

"Hedia, I've watched Susan still grieving for her David, still missing him, even in the midst of her present joy. I can see the fears in Andred's eyes, the way he watches Leela, knowing that she could be gone soon. Romana is already starting to get a look on her face, a certain trepidation that tells me exactly what she's thinking about. I've lost enough in the War; I don't think I'd survive putting myself through that." It was a blunt admission that despite his façade of strength, he was still as broken and bruised as the rest of them. She nodded and let it go.

She couldn't force him to face the truth. He'd just have to come to terms with it himself. He was scared to admit it, but it was already too late, he was deeply attached to Agent Murray.

What that meant for Hedia, she didn't know. But, she was a patient person; the math was on her side, regardless.

* * *

Col. Alan Mace, his wife Marion, and their sons, Edward and Albert, were sprawled on Andred and Leela's porch, digesting the remains of a very fine meal. Leela was still having trouble telling the boys apart. Even though they were a year apart in age, they were both like miniature clones of their father. Only when Albert, the younger at age nine, would pause and cock his head to listen thoughtfully to something being said, could Leela clearly see his mother in him.

Alan, bluff and straight forward, a soldier after Leela's own heart, was discussing small unit tactics with her and the boys were listening carefully to every word.

"Well, in that situation I would probably use a Bounding Overwatch formation, since hostile contact would be imminent," Alan told her with a frown and she nodded in agreement.

"I usually prefer Travelling Overwatch for moving through disputed terrain, but yes, a Bounding Overwatch is better for when contact is getting close to being initiated. Andred often worked the rifleman position and was quite effective there," she told him with a reminiscent smile. "The hardest thing was training him out of tunnel vision. He was essentially a cop before, on a planet with no actual crime rate, so they had no training at all." She shook her head in memory.

"No crime rate at all?" Marion asked with surprise and Leela nodded.

"A telepathic society makes petty crime impossible, there hadn't been a murder in hundreds of years, and rape was a crime unknown to me before I came to Earth," Andred explained. "We had a telepathic form of rape, but no one had actually attempted it in millions of years."

"No rape? At all?" Marion was looking at him in wonderment.

"Males and females in our society have the same levels of strength. A woman being attacked on your world is physically weaker than the male, cannot defend herself as easily, and is often ignored if she calls for aid," Andred's face became stormy as he spoke. "I find this utterly sickening. To take advantage of physical prowess against a person who cannot fight back, for the joy of making that person suffer, is the most disgusting, cowardly, and revolting thing I have ever encountered. I cannot understand how your society allows this behavior."

"It's not allowed, it's a crime," Alan protested.

"A crime that is rarely prosecuted and often played down, where the victim is as often blamed as the perpetrator," Andred shot back.

"On Gallifrey the women are as physically strong as the men, but also they are as strong telepathically," Leela broke in before the conversation could grow heated. Alan wasn't responsible for the crimes of all humanity, after all. "Attacking someone who can force you to experience their pain is difficult. To attack someone who can kick your backside and also fry your brain, is impossible," she added with a grin.

"So, not much sexual harassment on Gallifrey then," Marion commented, looking delighted by the thought.

"None," Andred answered with a shrug. "It's not like we can't tell if another of our race is interested in us or not. There isn't much doubt when you can feel their emotions."

"Can you feel Leela's" Marion asked and Andred nodded.

"But sadly, I can't feel his," Leela forestalled the next question. "Not unless he directly links his mind to me, which requires physical contact." She decided not to mention the usual occasions when that physical contact was most intense. She wouldn't want to make Andred blush in front of everyone. Marion had guessed though, since her lips were quirking with amusement.

"It would be most convenient to have telepathic connections between soldiers on a battlefield," Alan sighed and Andred shook his head.

"Actually, that's the time we tend to close up the most. Having someone die while you are connected to them is… traumatic." Andred's face closed up as he said this and Marion winced.

"Ah, I hadn't thought of that," Alan murmured and there was compassion in his eyes. "Leela told me a while back that the deaths of your people were felt by each of you."

"Yes," Andred sighed out. "I can right now feel roughly where everyone is and get a basic reading on their general emotional state." He closed his eyes and his hand moved to point in different directions as he spoke. "The Doctor and Koschei are working in the lab, Susan is there with them, and they're having a bad day, too many memories. Romana, Jenny, and Rose are at the mountain house in a good mood. Davian is in the fields having fun, Ellasiira is in her lab, sleeping. Darginian and Hedia are at the Torchwood offices, working on something. Eddy is napping at his home. Matilda is having lunch at hers. K'anpo and Naomi are up the mountain, though they are both closed off to me, right now. Terelinian and Lunzi are… well, none of our business," he chuckled and opened his eyes.

"At one time, Alan, I could hear the entirety of my race as a murmuring of sound at the back of my head. Concentrating on those I loved, I could know without a doubt whether they were alive or dead, happy or sad, and roughly where they were." He took a deep breath. "Now there is just the faintest thread of sound. It's slowly getting louder as more of us are being found or born, but it's still so very quiet. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Susan, the first of us to awaken, to hear complete silence around her." He shuddered. "I don't even want to imagine it."

"So, you can't feel our minds like that?" Marion asked and he shook his head.

"I know you're there because I can see you, Marion, but I can't feel your mind unless I were to actually initiate contact." He shrugged.

"Can you do that with anyone?" Alan asked next, his face thoughtful.

"Yes," he admitted reluctantly. "But, it's rather… intimate. I wouldn't do it without permission, a damn good reason, and a fairly close relationship with the person in question."

"So, you wouldn't use if for interrogations?" Alan asked and Andred looked instantly revolted.

"Omega, no!" he shot back. "There were those who were specially trained during the war to be able to separate their own mind from the mind being probed, but it was still painful for both parties," he admitted with an expression of distaste. "Darginian was an interrogator for a while, but I heard that he had a particularly bad session at one point and refused to continue with it. You could ask him for more details, but I doubt he'd be very forthcoming."

"I never heard about that," Leela told him, looking at him in curiosity.

"It was something I heard from one of the CIA liaisons we had. He told me that Dar had been one of the best, one of the most ruthless agents on the roster, until he had to interrogate a female alien who'd been enslaved by the Daleks. He went into her mind and it was bad enough that he was in hospital for a while." Andred looked uncomfortable talking about it and Leela suspected that it was an edited version of the tale.

"I'm not going to discuss it with him then," Alan said with a shake of his head. "He's gone through enough."

They had all gone through enough, too much, Leela thought to herself. Despite how well they seemed to be coping on the outside, much of their calm was mere spackle over the gaping wounds in their souls. She closed her eyes and prayed that the next Time Lord found would be a certified therapist, because that would be a thousand times more useful than another damn engineer.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25 – Small Lies

Susan read through the results again and sighed. She'd hoped that she was mistaken, but there was no doubt at all. It had happened, despite their precautions.

She was pregnant.

It was tempting to lay her head down on the lab table and cry, but she'd had hundreds of years to learn self-control, so she resisted the temptation. Her scans all came up with the same conclusion; she'd likely miscarry within a few weeks at best. She briefly considered trying to transfer the collection of dividing cells to a fish bowl, but she would need a fully trained OB/GYN who knew the intimate details of the Gallifreyan reproductive system and she was the only one there was.

She was a damn good doctor, but not good enough to be able to perform surgery on herself.

She scrubbed at her face and found that tears had leaked out despite her best efforts. Gods, how she wanted this child. She wanted a baby so much, to hold a life that was the combination of the two of them, a tangible creation of their bond.

She'd made her choice though, back when he was dying. Her bad regeneration on top of her sacrifice made this child an impossibility for her. She'd given a great deal of her life for him and she couldn't regret that. She was deeply grateful that he was alive. If he'd died, there would be no possibility of a child for them anyway, so it was a moot point. She shook her head, no, she regretted nothing.

It just hurt. It hurt so very much. She placed her hands on her belly.

"I'm so sorry, little one. I wish I could help you," she whispered. She pulled her emotions inside tightly, to keep from alarming and upsetting Koschei, and then she let herself cry.

* * *

Darginian signed the transfer papers for Geneva Murray and felt like a coward and a liar. He wanted her. He knew he'd fallen hard for the no nonsense, plain faced, strong willed agent. She wasn't a great beauty, she wasn't the most brilliant woman in the galaxy, but she was calm under fire, utterly solid, trustworthy, able, and capable of thinking on her feet. She was strong, clever, organized, and he felt less secure just knowing she wouldn't be there tomorrow.

"Damn," he muttered to the empty room. Was he doing the right thing? He dropped his head into his hands.

Two hundred years ago he'd have thought of her as a lesser creature, just expendable cannon fodder. After all that he'd seen in the War, he couldn't think like that anymore. He'd been opened up by all that he'd experienced. Nothing made sense anymore. Gallifrey was gone, but it was also still here, a potentiality that was growing beneath him.

He didn't know what to do anymore.

* * *

Arthur returned to the lab to general celebration. Susan was ecstatic that he had recovered enough from his wounds to return to working with her. Still, the sight of his crutches and leg brace roused feelings of guilt in her heart.

It was the transference of technology to Earth that had roused the Draconians against them and brought about his injuries. From the best of intentions, she'd inspired fear and hostility and brought about the injury of her friend.

"You're the one doing it now," Shay murmured and she looked up at him with chagrin.

"I am, aren't I," she sighed out. "Sorry."

"I'm the last person to rail against guilt and regret, you know, but this time you really cannot blame yourself for the Draconians being power-crazed and xenophobic. The Doctor hasn't been in this universe long enough to have caused that problem," he deadpanned and her grandfather turned and shot him a sour look.

"It's true that he did seem to be the cause of pretty much everything, didn't he?" she remarked and shook her head in disbelief. "Almost makes one marvel at how this universe managed to develop at all without him in it."

"Oi!" he protested and now his glare encompassed them both.

"It does boggle the mind, doesn't it?" Koschei said in a wondering tone and then they both started laughing, unable to remain straight-faced any longer.

* * *

"You know, Shay, my granddaughter used to be a delightful, obedient child, but since she's been with you, she'd gotten awfully cheeky! You're a bad influence on her!" the Doctor teased and Koschei shot her a wicked look.

"Perhaps, but you must admit she's been a very good influence on me," he answered and kissed her, leaning in to whisper in her ear. "And quite obedient, eh, love?" Susan glared at him, but he could feel the arousal in her and see it in the darkening of her eyes.

"Behave," she muttered and he chuckled.

"Not nearly good enough of an influence, obviously," the Doctor grumbled.

"Give her time to work on me, Doctor," he defended his wife. "After all, I have nine hundred years of dreadful bachelor habits to overcome, she'd hardly had any time at all to break me of them."

"Is that what you call it? Dreadful bachelor habits?" he muttered and Koschei shot him an impish grin. He no longer desired to rule the universe, but he still loved to rile up the Doctor, just as much as he had when they were boys. "Though, it's true, nine hundred years of being an arse is a lot to overcome. One can't expect miracles from the poor girl, after all," the Doctor conceded and Susan rolled her eyes.

"I think the fact that he's alive at all, is fairly miraculous," she answered with a grimace. "Honestly, the two of you! As jeopardy friendly as they come!"

"Doctor, I think we're being insulted, our good names are being impugned!"

"What are you talking, about, you don't have a good name!" the Doctor shot back.

Susan sighed and turned to speak to Martha and he caught something in her expression as she stepped away that worried him. Under the teasing there was a sorrow, something deep and profound was hurting her, but she had said nothing to him.

He watched her as she went to greet the others, talking and laughing, but he could feel how superficial her emotions were. She had closed herself down in a way he hadn't felt in a very long time. She was hiding her pain from them, from him, from everyone.

"Koschei?" the Doctor touched his shoulder, eyes concerned.

"Susan's upset about something, but she's holding it in," he explained and the Doctor nodded.

"She does this sometimes, you know, when she hasn't worked through how she feels about something," he explained and Koschei nodded, but it still hurt. "She never told me about the two of you, you know. Two hundred years she kept that secret from me. She'd shared everything with me all her life, never kept a single secret and then suddenly, she shut herself away from me. I understand why she did it, but it hurt like hell at the time." The two men looked at each other and Koschei put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

"She loves you so much," he told him and the Doctor nodded.

"She loves you too," he was reminded and he nodded in response. Whatever she was concealing, he wanted to be there for her when she was hurt and it bothered him that she was shutting him out like this. "She's still fairly young and her life has been lonely and full of fear. She spent half of that life completely alone, with no one to confide in, no one she could trust. She has fought her battles all alone, with no one to protect her and with the burden of all of our deaths if she should fail. She has habits that need to be overcome as well, you know." Koschei nodded his understanding and took a deep breath. The Doctor was watching him with worried eyes.

"I'm not going to do something stupid, Theta," he assured his best friend, who gave him a look of disbelief. "I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize my marriage. I have waited too long to be with her to blow it now."

"Yet, I seem to recall you running out of the house, not too very long ago, having just done something stupid," the Doctor reminded him and he winced as the memory of that particular blunder rose up to ambush him.

"An excellent point, Doctor," he acknowledged with a small groan. "Any suggestions?"

"Gently ask about what's bothering her and if she shows reluctance to talk, be calm and patient. You do have those qualities, right?" came the scathing retort and Koschei nodded, feeling suitably chastened.

"Gentle, calm and patient, right," he agreed.

* * *

Grabbing her by the elbow and steering her out of the room was probably the wrong tack to take, he realized, once they were outside. She was glaring at him and it occurred to him that maybe he'd started off on the wrong foot.

"Sorry," he murmured and she frowned even more deeply.

"For dragging me out of the party? Yes, an apology is a good start. What is wrong with you?" she snapped.

"That's what I want to know," he growled and knew he was blowing it, but his sudden insecurity was taking over his mouth. What was she keeping from him? "What is wrong with you? You're keeping secrets from me and I want to know why!" he demanded and then froze as her eyes went dark with fury. "Wait, let me try that again," he blurted, realizing that he was making things worse.

"Go right ahead," she ground out and he winced.

"I can feel that you're upset about something, love, and I'm worried about you," he told her, trying to keep his voice as gentle as he could. Her anger started to fade and she sighed out.

"I'm sorry, I was looking for quiet moment, but everyone came in before I had a chance," she told him and he forced himself to relax. "There's something I need to tell you, but I didn't want to just spring it on you," she continued and his hearts froze over. Oh Stars, she was leaving him. It was over. He'd lost her somehow.

She closed her eyes and he could feel her hurt and grief. He was falling apart, but he pulled her into his arms. Whatever he'd done, she was in pain.

"When are you leaving?" he asked and she pulled away in confusion.

"What?" she asked and then rolled her eyes. "You big idiot, I'm not leaving you!" she grumbled as she picked up his thoughts. He let out a gasp of relief and clutched her against him.

"Thank Omega," he sighed.

"Shay, I'm pregnant, but I can't do anything to save the baby, my body can't support the pregnancy." The words fell into his ears like hammers and he felt suddenly stupid for his petty fears and angers.

"Oh love, I'm so sorry," he murmured and held her tight against him. Here he'd been senselessly jealous, wrapped up in his own idiocy and fears and it was something both so simple and so profoundly complicated, something they were both helpless to solve. "It'll be okay, Susan, we'll be okay." She sobbed into his shoulder and he held her, letting her cry.

He was always leaning on her, always drawing on her strength, and it wasn't fair. She was his partner, his wife, not his crutch and for all that he kept telling himself that, he was still not pulling his own weight as much as he ought to be.

The Doctor was right, she had gone through all sorts of horrors, and she'd suffered alone for so long. He needed to show her that she wasn't alone anymore. He needed to be the one to save her this time. He started by simply picking her up in his arms and carrying her into the trans mat.

"Where are we going?" she asked, sounding muffled from her crying.

"Home, love," he answered. She made a protest about the party and he shook his head. "Let me take care of you." She subsided against him and sighed out.

"I love you," she whispered and he activated the teleport and took her home.

* * *

Donna watched Davian running after her grandfather, as he trudged up the hill with his telescope. The boy adored the old man and she could hardly blame him for it. Wilf paused and turned back, extending a hand to Dave, who looked up at him with pure hero worship. The younger man, a boy really, took the telescope, carrying it for Wilf with a grin.

A moment later Tony appeared, running through the tall red grass, laughing and waving as he came. Several other children appeared as well and soon her elderly grandfather was surrounded by a pack of laughing, running children.

"He's like the Pied Piper," Stuart chuckled and she nodded.

"He always wanted lots of grandchildren," she told him. "Mum wasn't having more than one though, broke his heart. He made up for it, you know, he always made me feel like a princess, his one and only. But now he's got all that lot to run him ragged. Happiest man in the universe, he is. Now if I could get him to marry Minnie, I think it would be a perfect life for him."

"Minnie?" Stuart asked his blue eyes bright and interested. He had dark hair and somewhat large ears, but she thought he was adorable. He was sweet, shy, stammered a bit, but had a gentle heart.

"Oh yes, she's been angling to be the second Mrs. Mott for quite a few years now, but she's not broken him down yet. It's hard for him, you know, he really loved gran, never even looked at another woman, mum said, and I believe it. I don't think he's ever gotten over her." He nodded his understanding and slipped his hand into hers.

Together they followed after the crowd of children around her grandfather. They would help him set up the telescope and then Stuart was taking her fishing. She grinned up at him. She had never thought that fishing would ever be something she was looking forward to, but she found that anything she did in Stuart's company was fun.

* * *

Geneva read her orders and nodded at Col. Mace.

"Very well, sir," she answered and saluted him sharply.

"Dismissed." There was a touch of compassion in his eyes that she pretended not to see and, with her dignity drawn about her, she left the HQ.

She walked over to the Trans Mat and set the destination for Earth.

It wasn't until she got home that she allowed herself to cry and then the tears just wouldn't stop falling.

* * *

"Susan, is Evarian your father's full name?" Rose asked from out of the blue and Susan blinked at her in surprise.

"Evarianrestankalinder," she answered. She was sitting at the kitchen table sipping at her tea and making notations on her tablet. The view from the kitchen was of the mountain side as it fell from the heights, slashing its way down to the plain below.

"And you're Susanatrevalar," Rose continued.

"Yes."

"But Koschei is just Koschei?" she asked next and Susan suddenly saw where the conversation was going.

"The higher the family's ranking the more awful the names are," she told her grandfather's wife with a roll of her eyes. "If it's a real tongue twister then you can be sure that the person you are addressing is of the highest levels."

"So, Koschei isn't from a high ranking family?"

"Well, in my mother's eyes, his family would be considered sort of Nouveau Riche," Susan told her with a nod.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, they'd only been titled for about ten thousand years, you see, which wasn't much, especially considering how far our family goes back." Susan shrugged.

"How far back does your family go?" Rose sat down across from her and Susan frowned.

"Grandfather hasn't gone into all this with you?"

"No, he hates talking about it, actually."

Damn, she thought to herself. This was not the conversation she wanted to be having in her fragile emotional state, but from the look in Rose's eyes, this was the conversation she was going to have to have. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed out. This was going to be painful.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26 – History Lessons

Susan sighed out and looked down at the carved wooden table beneath her hands as she tried to figure out what her best options here were. Theses were all things that Grandfather ought to be the one to tell Rose, but at the same time, it was information that Rose was entitled to know as a member of the family.

"We go all the way back, Rose," she finally said. "Our family goes back to before Rassilon, before Omega's sacrifice, before the Sisterhood of Karn was formed, even before what written history we have from that era. There are ancient stories that say our family was once the Royal Family of Gallifrey and that we ruled for thousands of years," she told her and Rose's eyes were going wide as she spoke.

"The Royal Family?" she coughed out.

"Certain legends suggest that," Susan conceded. "It is true that the members of our family are often born with greater and more powerful gifts than other families. The Arkytior is always a woman of our line, for instance."

"What is the Arkytior?" Rose asked the one question that Susan would most have preferred not to answer.

"The Arkytior is the manifestation of certain temporal energies." Rose gave her a blank look. "She's the Goddess of Destruction, Time, and possibly also Entropy, though that is disputed," she simplified.

"She's a goddess?"

"Look 'god or goddess' it's just words we use for things we don't understand yet. When something is really big, it's hard to wrap your mind around, so you call it something to make it easier to handle." Susan was flailing trying to figure out how to explain things to Rose.

"Okay, let's just pass on trying to define religion and go to the Arkytior again," Rose groaned. "Why is everything so bloody complicated with you lot!"

"Because the universe isn't simple, Rose," she chided the much younger woman with a sigh. "The Arkytior is a force, a power, an entity, if you will that is incredibly vast and ancient. She's something as far beyond us on the evolutionary scale as we are beyond amoebas, got it?"

"Yes, so far," Rose told her and Susan nodded.

"Okay, so in the past, some of my female ancestors, three of them that we know of, were able to tap into this force. In all but one case it led to Very Bad Things," she continued.

"Very Bad Things?"

"The near extinction of our race and large chunks of some galaxies getting blown up."

"Right, Very Bad Things! Got it."

"Number three was apparently able to control, or was controllable, or something, but that's information I got from Rassilon, who wasn't exactly a reliable source. He was convinced that a bonded mate could keep the power from blowing chunks out of a galaxy, but for obvious reasons this is not exactly a theory you want to test out, because if you're wrong, well…"

"Very Bad Things," Rose filled in and Susan nodded. "But that doesn't really explain why."

"The very faint touch I had on the Arkytior once gave me the impression of something vast and huge and free. To shove something like that into a tiny little Gallifreyan body and mind would drive both minds mad, I think." Susan frowned as she tried to explain. "It wasn't meant to be held in something so small, it would burn me out."

"Got it. Can you take like a tiny bit and just use that?" Rose asked and Susan shook her head.

"I'm not sure that I could keep her out of my head if I opened up to her at all. I don't know what would happen and honestly I don't want to muck about with it."

"Very Bad Things," Rose sighed out and nodded her understanding.

"Yup."

"Worse than your husband at Halloween?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow and she dropped her head into her hands.

"I did try to explain to him that "Trick or Treat" was a rhetorical question," Susan sighed.

"Yeah, you might also want to explain that it's supposed to be the kids doing the pranking as well," Rose grumbled. "I was picking bits of crockery out of the hedges for quite some time. Where he got the explosives, I will never know either."

"Well, the kids were certainly surprised and all that, doubt they'll forget that particular Halloween," Susan pointed out.

"Neither will their parents," Rose reminded her and Susan sighed again, thinking about the police and threatened lawsuits.

"I'll speak to him," she promised.

"Do that." Rose chuckled. "We got a bit off topic though. Your family is some sort of Gallifreyan Royal Family?"

"Yeah, but honestly, it was so long ago," she protested.

"Not by Time Lord standards," Koschei muttered as he walked in. He paused at the door and swept his wife an elaborate bow. "Your Highness," he intoned solemnly and she chucked her napkin at him.

"You too, husband," she shot back with a dry look. He shrugged.

"Well, that was the entire reason I married you, my darling," he informed her with a mock villainous leer. "I have plans to usurp the throne from your grandfather and rule all of Gallifrey in his place!" he announced and Susan rolled her eyes at him.

"So, the incredible sex had nothing to do with it?" she asked with a rather wicked smile. He cleared his throat.

"A mere bonus," he informed her in a rather unconvincing tone, his eyes roaming over her with definite interest.

"Really?" she drawled, stretching and leaning back a bit, to display her cleavage to best advantage and he nodded. Since his eyes were glued on her body, it was hard to take that seriously.

"Wait, from her grandfather?" Rose interjected and they turned to look at Rose in surprise.

"Well, technically speaking, if there still were a monarchy," Koschei began.

"Which there isn't, so it's a moot point," Susan finished, waving off Rose's incipient hysteria.

"I married the King of Gallifrey!" Rose shouted. "And he didn't bother to mention that fact?"

"Well, Emperor actually, but as I said, it's a moot point, there is no monarchy anymore, Gallifrey is governed by the high council and the Lord President," Susan reminded her.

"Who no longer exist! They're all dead. Whereas the Doctor is alive, here, and pretty much running things," Rose pointed out. Koschei sat down heavily and Susan leaned back in her chair, feeling a bit shocked.

"A point I really hadn't considered," Susan sighed.

"We need to get a governing body of some sort put in before your mother declares your father Heir Apparent, or some other nonsense," Koschei grumbled and she glared at her husband, wishing that she couldn't see her mother doing just that.

"K'anpo has her up the mountain and out of our hair right now," Susan pointed out.

"This is why she tried to get rid of Koschei, isn't it?" Rose suddenly burst out. "Because you're a bloody princess and he's not a Duke or whatever." Susan winced and Koschei jumped up out of his chair. "Oh hell, I didn't mean it that way, Koschei! I mean look at me! I'm not even from Gallifrey! I'm a shop girl from the Powell Estates!" she scrambled to apologize and he nodded slowly, but Susan could feel the hurt in him.

She stood up and wrapped her arms around him, looking up into his eyes.

"You and me, Shay," she murmured to him and he looked at her, eyes gone hot with his conflicting emotions. His love and need for her and the bred in the bone snobbishness of Gallifreyan society warring inside of him. She kissed him and he melted against her, minds twining together even as his arms wrapped around her.

"You and me, Susan," he whispered back and she smiled up at him, knowing they were okay again. "You're all I need."

"I love you," she whispered back and held him tightly, breathing out in relief.

"I am sorry," Rose insisted and Koschei looked at her with a wry smile.

"It's okay, you just hit me in a sensitive spot," he admitted. "My family is fairly high ranking, honestly, we're about duke level, I guess, by British standards, but it's not about that with the really old families, it's about the age and who you're descended from. None of my ancestors are one of the exalted Eight," he complained.

"Your children will be though, right?" Rose commented. Susan was taken by surprise and burst into tears. She was as startled by the sudden grief and agony as Rose was and tried to get herself under control, but Koschei simply wrapped her up tight and rocked her softly against him.

"It's all right, Susan, go ahead and cry, let it out," he murmured and she just leaned into him and let herself sob.

"I said something wrong again, didn't I?" Rose queried. "I'm just batting a thousand here!"

"We can't have kids right now, Susan's body is too frail after her difficult regeneration," he explained and Rose gasped.

Susan felt Rose hugging her from the side, her arms around both herself and Koschei.

"I'm so sorry!" she told them and the warmth of her empathy surrounded them. It was like being wrapped up in compassion, love, and gentle warmth. It was an unconscious projection and Susan had worked for a long time to be able to withstand such a touch without flinching. It was meant with kindness, so Susan tried to accept it as such.

"I'm actually pregnant right now, but my body is already starting to reject the baby," she sighed out and let herself feel the grief fully.

"But why?" Rose asked and Susan closed her eyes and tried not to snap at her. The two subjects she least wanted to discuss and she got to talk about both of them in one day.

"Five dimensional, remember?" Koschei broke in and Rose nodded.

"Remember when you gave birth to Jenny, you saw the second cord that was feeding her, the one that wasn't actually tangible?" Susan reminded her and Rose smiled, her face going soft, as she nodded. "That cord gives the baby some of the mother's regeneration energy, that's why you shouldn't have more than two children per regeneration, it makes it harder for you to regenerate later on. Honestly, after two your own body will reject a third child anyway, the way that my body is rejecting this one."

"What about the fish bowl babies?" Rose asked and Susan smiled. Her grandfather had married a clever woman.

"Archon energy can simulate, with certain adjustments, regeneration energy. Half of what I was doing in the NICU was infusing Eddy and Matilda with modified Archon energy. I had to actually take energy from my TARDIS and transfer it into the children myself," she explained and Koschei stiffened beside her.

"You what!" he shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders, his eyes blazing with anger.

"I'll take it that was bad?" Rose asked.

"Considering that doing something similar nearly killed you, Rose, and DID kill the Doctor, then yes, we can take that as a given!" he snarled and Susan took a deep breath and projected calm at him.

"I'm not an idiot, Shay," she told him and he glared at her. "We took a bloody course at the Academy on how to safely transfer that energy for just such an emergency!" she grumbled and he began to calm down. "It's not as though we hadn't had emergency birth situations, ever, in all of Gallifrey's billion year history, you know! Funnily enough, I got a bloody PhD, in medicine even, and guess what? We learned a few things about Archon energy along the way."

"It's genetic," Rose told him with a small smile. "That sarcasm. My husband has it too."

"Well, I did sort of invite that one," Shay admitted sheepishly and Susan scrubbed at her face with her hands.

"Oh you infuriating man," she groaned. "Can you just once trust me to know what I'm doing? Have I ever done anything to make you think I'm a reckless moron?"

"Well, you married me," he pointed out and she glared at him.

"I hate you."

"No, you really don't," he replied with a confident smile.

"Maybe a night in the spare bedroom will convince you otherwise," she shot back and his smile faltered. His eyes got that insecure look in them and her anger faded as quickly as it had come. "Oh Shay, like I ever would," she told him and he relaxed and pulled her into his arms again. Sleeping curled against him was her greatest joy and she wasn't about to give that up.

"I've kicked the Doctor to the couch once or twice," Rose informed them and Susan shrugged.

"You didn't spend 200 years sleeping alone," she replied and Koschei winced. "I have waited far too long to waste a single moment."

"Right. Any other massive, shocking revelations about the family that you think I ought to know about?"

"We're considered a bit odd?" Susan teased and Rose rolled her eyes.

"I'd figured that one out for myself, thank you!" Rose retorted.

* * *

Rose waited for her husband to get home and then she pounced on his.

"Greetings, your Majesty," she announced and swept him a curtsy. The Doctor winced and she rose frowning at him. "I had a lovely long talk with Susan today, apparently you forgot to tell me a few things!"

"Look Rose, it's legends and myths, not proven facts!" he protested.

"There is no Lord President or High Council! Where does that leave you?" she demanded and he shrugged.

"Why do you think I've been so careful?" he asked her and she frowned. "I made certain that it was Kate who convinced the others to keep going, I've let Darginian be the one that UNIT and Torchwood go to. I even put Koschei in charge of the engineering. Every time someone has had to be in a position of authority, I've dodged and run," he pointed out and she grinned at him. "I didn't even want to be Lord President, Rose, let alone Emperor of Gallifrey! I certainly don't want our children getting roped into some dynastic nonsense, either!"

"Okay, perhaps I over-reacted," she acknowledged.

"No, I should have told you," he confessed. "But honestly, it was nice to be with someone who didn't have that meaningless history in their head. Evarian's mother was the sort of snooty egotist who thought being in a non-existent Line of Succession was the most important thing ever. She loved to swan about wearing tiaras and rubies," he ground out and Rose could suddenly see it all.

He fallen in love and married a girl and it had turned out that she married him for a title and rank. She ran at him, hugging him hard.

"I love you, Doctor, not a title, not a crown, just you! You could be the lowest chav in the universe and I'd still love you!" she assured him and he burst out laughing, swinging her around in a circle.

"I love you too, Rose Tyler!" he chortled. "I love you so very, very much!"


	27. Chapter 27

A/N - This was a tough chapter to write. Sorry for the delay, but I kept vacillating on some of the points. In the end, I was satisfied with the chapter, but it means more re-writes for Susan's War, darn it. Someday this series will stop sneaking up and ambushing me. :P

Chapter 27 – Tea and Sympathy

Darginian put his head down, leaning on his elbows, and sighed out. The kitchen was filled with the smell of freshly baked bread and Susan, dusted in flour, was slicing a loaf for him, fresh butter sitting in a dish on the table near him.

The kitchen in the Doctor's home was large, but still had a comfy feel to it. It was painted red, with stone to half height on the walls. A fireplace dominated one wall and the huge arched windows along the opposite wall looked out at a view of the side of the mountain. The appliances were modern, but cleverly disguised to look like they were antique black iron with matching fixtures.

"What would you have done about Geneva?" he asked Susan and she gave him a long look, placing a slice of bread on a plate before him.

"At this point, with everything I know? Probably the same thing," she answered and he looked at her in surprise.

"But, your first husband…?" he protested. He'd expected her to disagree with his decision and argue with him about it.

"Thirty years," she told him, her face and voice filled with a terrible grief. "All I got with him were thirty years and then he was dead and I was all alone. I watched him grow older, measuring out each day with him, knowing that I could do nothing to slow the progression of time. Early on it wasn't so bad, but as he grew frail, it was agonizing. I became a doctor to save lives, but it wasn't enough. He was dying from the lingering radiation from the Dalek invasion, from the stress of fighting, of rebuilding, of sleepless nights and worry, and the burden of all that we had to do. I bled inside every day for the last ten years of his life." Her voice dropped to a near whisper at the end and he could see just how much it hurt.

"Was it worth it?" he asked and she sighed out and sat down.

"I don't know. I'm glad that I knew him. I am who I am because of what we went through together. He made me a stronger person, a better person, and I don't regret loving him or marrying him. The memory of him held me together in the Tower, gave me the will to fight them. I'm proud of what we accomplished together, but it was such a short period of happiness, followed by so much pain. I'm just not sure. I do know that the joy I feel, thinking about my future with Koschei, is far preferable to the constant agonizing I went through with David. Still, while I don't think I'd ever want to go through that again, I _was_ happy with him." She shrugged. "I don't know, Dar, it's so complicated. My feelings get all twisted up just thinking about it."

"I can understand that. I'm pretty twisted up as well," he admitted.

"I guess the question you have to ask yourself is; how will you feel in fifty years, will you regret not having tried to have a life with her, or will you be grateful that you avoided that pain?" she told him and he shook his head in bewilderment.

"I don't know," he groaned.

"I suspect, Dar, that if you were completely in love with her, you _would_ know. This wouldn't even be a question for you," Susan informed him and he sat quietly, turning that thought around in his head.

"I suspect that you're right," he answered finally. He spread butter on the bread and took a bite. It was heavenly and he felt the tightness around his hearts starting to loosen. She was dead-on, he realized. If his hearts were completely engaged he'd never hesitate, even for a second. "Can I ask you something, something personal?" he looked up at her and saw her drawing herself together protectively.

"It's about that time, isn't it?" she asked, knowing that they were talking about her imprisonment and Rassilon's torment of her, and he nodded. "Very well, ask."

"He went in every day to see you. None of us dared question… Did he…?" Darginian wasn't sure why he was asking this now, but he had wondered, tortured himself with it; he had to know if his imaginings were as bad as the reality, but he found he couldn't ask after all.

"Did he rape me?" she asked the question for him.

"Yes."

"Only once. But the threat of a repeat was enough to keep me in constant terror of him." Her voice was steady, but her eyes burned with a dark fury that broke his hearts. "Mostly he just beat me, demanding that I find Shay for him, to use the link to bring him to his death."

"I'm so sorry. I should have gotten you out of there much sooner," he apologized and she turned those shadowed eyes on him and shrugged.

"Everyone did the best they could against impossible odds. Dar, you saved my life, I'm hardly going to quibble about your timing." She was genuinely amused, he could see it but it hurt him so badly that he had failed both her and Koschei in so signal a manner.

"Does Shay know?"

"No."

"You need to tell him."

"What? Why? Why would I pile more pain on him, layer him with more burdens?"

"He's your husband, more than that, he's your bond mate, and he deserves the whole truth. There shouldn't be secret between you, not secrets like this. Plus, these things have a tendency to surface somehow and if it comes out at the wrong time, the wrong place, and he's not prepared, it could go very badly."

She stared at him for a long time and then nodded slowly.

"Damn. I hate it when you're right," she complained and he shook his head.

"Not to worry, it doesn't happen all that often," he assured her. She laughed and then her face softened suddenly. He grinned, Koschei must be nearby, he guessed.

"Captain Darginian, alone in the kitchen, with my wife," Koschei cried out, striking a melodramatic pose, as he entered the room. "What are you doing here, Captain? Am I cuckolded so soon?" Dar watched Susan's face light up at the sight of Shay and the way his eyes seemed to caress her.

"My dark secret is revealed, Koschei, I'm desperately in love with your wife's cooking," he mock sighed and Koschei grinned at him.

"Yeah, me too," he admitted and grabbed both a kiss and a slice of bread from her. She laughed and shook her head at him.

"You two better save some room for dinner," she scolded, but she was still smiling.

"Ah well, that was it, Dar," he was solemnly informed, as Koschei collapsed, disconsolate, into a chair. "That was the sound of the honeymoon being over. Now I am relegated to the realm of hen-pecked husbands," he teased and Susan gave him a sour look.

"Yes, you are so abused, all in the realm should rend their clothes in grief for your immense suffering," she shot back, hands on hips and lips twitching.

"Perhaps fair lady, you could ease my suffering?" he suggested and pulled Susan into his lap. She chuckled.

"But good sir, whatever would your wife think?" she asked with large eyes.

"That harridan? Who cares! I like you much better!" he told her, hands moving along her back and his eyes drinking her in.

Dar gathered his plate and headed out of the room, since it was obvious that those two were about to be wrapped up in each other to the exclusion of all else, which was exactly how it ought to be.

He stopped in the doorway and looked back to see Koschei, Susan in his arms, eyes closed, forehead pressed to hers, his whole body curved around her and her curled like a flower bud against him, and he smiled. They had waited so long for this, he knew, so he slipped out and left them alone.

Susan had a lot to discuss with him and Dar didn't need to be there for that.

* * *

Rose lay on the bed with her daughter, watching her wave tiny hands and blow adorable little bubbles. She was entranced by the baby, her eyes picking out the Doctor's chin, her own eyes, his forehead, her ears, it was amazing and she never got tired of holding her daughter, of kissing her head, of watching her look around with her unfocused gaze.

"Hello Jenny," she murmured and the baby gurgled at her. She got the general impression of amusement and a certain amount of pleased self-importance from her and then Jenny yawned and slipped into a doze with no intermediate stage to it.

She rose, carefully lifted the baby, and deposited her into the antique crib next to their bed. She slipped out of the bedroom and into the sitting room that adjoined it, where her husband was seated on the floor, assembling a rocking horse.

"She can't even sit up yet," Rose commented.

"She will, soon enough," he answered with a complacent air that she found amusing.

"You speak from experience?"

"Evarian was the result of mostly my efforts, Rose, his mother certainly couldn't be bothered to change nappies," he retorted and shot her a wry smile. "I also raised Susan from the time she was eight, which was no picnic, I might add. Dragging a small child around on a TARDIS was not my most brilliant idea." He scrubbed at his face tiredly and she sat down behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Have I told you today that I love you?" she asked and he leaned back against her with a smile.

"Yeah, but I could hear it again," he told her.

"I love you."

"I love you too." He put away his tools and got up, reaching back to extend a hand to her. She let him pull her to her feet and then wrapped her arms around him, leaning in for a kiss.

"Susan tells me only two children per regeneration," she complained and he grinned at her.

"Well, we could do more, but they would have to be bucket babies," he explained and she grinned at him.

"How about ten children?" she suggested and he laughed.

"Fine, but can we space them out a bit? We have thousands of years ahead of us, Rose, we don't need to do everything right now!" he reminded her and she grinned at him.

"I know something I want to do right now," she whispered in his ear and he pulled her into a heated kiss.

"Allons-y!" he murmured.

* * *

Romana sat on the porch with K'anpo, sipping the chai tea he brewed so well and wondering if her tooth enamel would survive. Her current regeneration looked Indian to the humans of Earth and she found that she did have a deep liking for curry, which surprised her. She wondered if anyone had done a study of ethnic shifts between regenerations before. A question to ask Susan, perhaps.

James had the same background, his ancestors had come to that world from Punjab and though they'd been there centuries, they still had the olive complexioned skin and sleek black hair of their ancestors. He was climbing amongst the rocks nearby, and she watched him with a look both happy and sad.

"With Susan about, he should live a good long life, even as long as Leela," K'anpo soothed, reading her thoughts with ease.

"I know, but I want him to live as long as I do, I don't want to lose him," she answered.

"You can never lose the things that you keep within you," he told her gently and she gave him a wry smile.

"Do you ever miss her?" she asked him and his eyes shadowed with his own grief.

"Every day," he sighed out and then smiled at her. "But she is never far from me."

"We may yet find her, you know," Romana reminded him and he shook his head.

"She should have been with me on Runcigora, if she'd made it through," he told her and Romana sighed out.

"About the other signals that you picked up? James and I will be heading off soon to locate them," she informed him and he nodded, once more the placid and unruffled man she'd known for centuries. All traces of his momentary grief were gone.

She wondered what it had cost him to get to that level of peace.

* * *

When Susan finished telling him, Koschei sat for a long time, just staring at the table top.

"Dar said I needed to tell you, was he wrong?" she asked, worried by his silence.

"No." One word. From her husband that was very worrisome.

"Are you all right?" she asked next, reaching a tentative hand towards him. His head came up and his eyes were blazing. She nearly recoiled from the fury in them.

"Am I all right? For Omega's sake, Susan! Who the hell cares about me right now? Are _you_ all right?" he snarled and she stared at him blankly.

"Me?" she asked and tried to think about the answer, but couldn't find one. "I haven't really thought about it," she admitted.

"Oh Susan," he whispered and his eyes were filled with a desolate misery that puzzled her. "I am a piss poor excuse for a mate."

"Shay!" she protested and he turned on her with a look of savagery that stilled her.

"You've been bleeding right in front of me and I didn't even see it! I've been so busy feeling sorry for myself, that I never even asked about what happened to you!" he cried and she shook her head in weary denial.

"You had so much more to heal!"

He stood up and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her gently.

"When will you put yourself first?" he asked and she stared at him in shock. "When will you stop taking care of everyone around you and start taking care of yourself? Stop being a doctor for five minutes here and just be Susan!" he demanded and she slumped in his arms.

He was right. She had spent most of her life carrying secrets, saving the world, protecting Grandfather, protecting the Master, doing what she had to in order to save the universe, and she hadn't done much to heal herself in the process.

Walls inside of her cracked open and defenses fell. The barriers she'd built between herself and her pain collapsed and she began to cry. Shay held her as the raging tide of grief and anguish shattered her. He sat down, pulling her into his arms and rocking her gently, his hands stroking her hair. All that time in the Tower, the horror of having to kill herself to save her own mind, the stress of pretending to be fine and normal for all those years at the Academy overwhelmed her. The anguish of being a battlefield doctor, of watching patients dying around her, while she worked frantically to save them, rose up and ambushed her. Then the worst of it, Rassilon standing over her, enjoying her suffering and humiliation, reveling in his power over her and hurting her so very badly, the shame of her powerlessness was the worst of it.

She was falling apart, shaking and crying, clinging to Koschei like he was the only rock in a raging sea. He laid his cheek against her hair, and she could feel him moving through her mind, carefully, gently healing the raw patches in her mind. Her instinct was to protest, but she forced herself to relax her defenses, to let him in. It was so hard. She was so used to having to be the strong one. She was ashamed of her weakness, of needing anyone's help, and yet she knew it was silly to feel that way.

"Do you think less of me for needing your help?" he asked and she shook her head.

"No, of course not," she told him and it was true.

"Did you think that _I_ would think less of you for needing my help?" he asked next and she had to ponder that for a bit.

"I've always seen myself as a burden," she admitted and he hugged her closely. "Grandfather had to leave Gallifrey because of me and for a long time he really missed it. He kept talking about going home again someday and it always made me so unhappy. I was scared to go back, but I could see his longing for home as well. It was my fault. If I hadn't been born…," she choked out and burst into tears again.

"If you hadn't been born I'd be dead now," he told her and she clung to him, suddenly scared by that thought. "You're not a burden on me, Susan. You're everything to me. Without you I would have stayed a pawn of Rassilon's for all of my life and never known any sort of happiness or joy. You healed things in me, you set me free. Let me do the same for you. Please."

"I can never say 'no' to you, Shay," she sighed out and he kissed her softly, slipping further into her mind and she relaxed against him, letting him see everything. Tears rolled down his face, but he didn't pull away, didn't even flinch as he sorted through her memories, watched her die, watched her destroy herself to save her soul, watched her fight against something impossible to resist, just to protect him, to keep his safe.

He found the year where he'd been dead, saw the agony in her. He watched her moving through her life like a robot, accomplishing tasks while bleeding inside. He saw the dream with Lucy, felt her grief, her acceptance, her doubts, and he cried with her, mourning that woman-child and all that she had suffered. He saw everything and his kiss took away the sting of it.

When they finally pulled back from each other, they were both tear-streaked and shaken, but there was a new sense of peace there as well. There were no more secrets between them and he still loved her, wasn't ashamed of her.

She breathed out. There was still a lot more to heal, but it was a beginning.

"Cup of tea?" she asked him and he laughed.

"Sounds delightful," he replied.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28 – Bleeding Out

It happened on her way back from work. Susan felt stabbing pains in her back and belly and turned around and stumbled back towards the lab. She pushed through the door and, to her relief, only Martha was still there.

"Susan? What's wrong?"

"I'm having a miscarriage," she gasped out and Martha ran to her, pulling her arm across her shoulders and leading her out of the genetics lab and into the clinic area. It was newly built, only a month old, and so far the only patient had been the Brigadier. Martha got on her gloves and went to get collection cups.

Susan closed her eyes and tried not to cry. She'd known it was coming, known it was inevitable, yet she must have harbored some subconscious secret hope, because the grief was hitting her so hard.

"Susan, let's get you into the bathroom," Martha told her gently and helped her get up again. The pain was awful, worse than the worst period she'd ever had. As a Time Lady, her cycle was infrequent at best, her people were not particularly fertile at the best of times, and normally it was a brief inconvenience. This though was agonizing.

They staggered into the bathroom and Martha helped her get undressed.

"You have something to collect the materials for analysis?" she asked, trying to be a doctor for a moment, rather than a scared and grieving patient. Martha held out a specimen cup with a nod, her eyes worried. "Good."

She'd have Martha do the scan afterwards, since she wasn't sure she'd be able to hold the scanner. Her hands were shaking and she wanted to crawl away in a hole somewhere. Instead, she held the collection cup in place and averted her eyes from the gush of blood and tissue that could have one day been a child.

It was just a collection of cells, she reminded herself. She'd felt no emotions, no mind, there had been nothing to connect to yet. In a few months, she would have sensed the developing of sentience, but just then, at only five weeks, there was nothing truly alive there.

Even so, she felt tears falling down her face.

"Susan!" Koschei's anxious voice echoed through the empty lab. Martha looked at her.

"I'll be right back," she promised and went out to calm her husband down. Left alone, with no one to see her, Susan allowed herself to fall apart. She carefully set the collection cup down on the surgical tray. The bleeding had stopped, so she just dropped her head into her arms and sobbed.

* * *

Koschei felt his wife's sudden spike of pain, dropped his screwdriver, and ran. He dashed across the plaza and pounded into the genetics lab. She was nowhere to be seen and he followed the trail of her mind into the clinic. Four clean white beds and a room painted in soft greens and blues greeted his eyes. It was designed to be soothing, but he wasn't calmed by it at all.

"Susan!" he shouted. He could feel grief, loss, and pain and he was fairly sure he knew what had happened, but he wasn't certain, and that made him upset. Martha Jones stepped out of the bathroom and he skidded to a halt.

He always felt guilty around Martha. He couldn't help it. Even though this version only knew him as the somewhat snarky engineer who fixed things and was married to her teacher, he still remembered torturing her family and nearly killing her.

"She's in the bathroom, I think you ought to wait a moment," Martha told him gently and he wrung his hands, bouncing from foot to foot in anxiety.

"She's miscarrying, isn't she?" he asked and she nodded. There was sympathy in her eyes and he felt even worse about what he'd done to the other version of her.

"She never said that she was pregnant," Martha told him and she was frowning now.

"She knew she couldn't bring it to term," he told her. "Not enough Archon energy after her bad regeneration," he added. Martha nodded, still frowning.

"She should still have had enough for at least one pregnancy," she muttered, pulling out her tablet and starting to tap away.

"I was dying. She gave me some of hers to save me," he confessed, feeling as though he was the cause of so much of her suffering. Martha looked at him and she smiled.

"It must be wonderful to love someone that much," she told him and he looked at her in surprise. Wonderful? Susan had been, beaten, tortured, nearly killed, and was now bleeding in a bathroom because of him. He closed his eyes and thought of all the times she could have been rid of him. She could have let him die, or be killed, at so many points along their path, but she never had.

"She's what's wonderful," he told her and Martha's eyes widened in surprise. He flushed, suddenly embarrassed, and the dark eyed woman tactfully looked down at her tablet, giving him a moment to collect himself. "I'll never know why she puts up with me," he laughed, trying to lighten the mood. Part of his mind was filled with the grief his wife was suffering. He could feel her sorrow like an ache in his chest and he wanted nothing more than to go in there and hold her. He could feel though that she needed time to pull herself together, so he was waiting.

"I think it's because of the way you look at her," Martha told him and he was startled by the comment. "She walks into a room and it's like no one else exists anymore. You look at her like she's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen."

"She is. Nine hundred years and I've never seen anything or anyone like her." His voice was low and his eyes on the floor, he didn't like baring his soul like this, but if anyone deserved his honesty, it was Martha Jones. She didn't know it, but he owed her. "For a few years, when we were in separate universes, I thought she was dead." He closed his eyes as the remembered agony squeezed his hearts. "I went mad, Martha. I was so lost, so miserable, and so angry." He took a deep breath. "I'm no good without her." He shrugged and looked up at Martha, who was watching him with a deep compassion that he found almost unbearable. If she knew what he'd done, she'd hate him, but he couldn't tell her. He needed so much to start again.

"Well, Donna tells me that Susan was a wreck during that as well. She didn't explain at the time, but Donna put it all together. She said Susan would start crying for no reason, that she was like a zombie around the office, staring at nothing all the time. She did everything she was told to do at work, but it was like she wasn't there anymore. Then one day she freaked out in the living room, started glowing gold and shouting that she had to save someone. She collapsed and they took her to the hospital," Martha told him and he froze.

"She glowed gold?" he asked. He felt as though he could barely breathe. He could feel Susan slowly collecting herself and he knew she'd soon step out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, Donna said it was like St. Elmo's fire all over her," Martha confirmed. "Is that normal for you lot?"

"No." He turned as he felt Susan coming and waited for her. She opened the door and he opened his arms to her. She clung to him, arms around his waist, head buried in his shoulder and he held her tightly against him.

They'd shared her memories of that time and there was nothing that had suggested this. She remembered him dying, recalled reaching out to him, giving him her life force when Lucy nearly killed him again.

"That was four days before Christmas, right?" he asked Martha and she shook her head.

"No, it was the day after, Christmas Morning, actually," she answered, looking at him as though he was mad to be worried about this when his wife was falling apart. Susan looked up at him, confused as well. He patted her gently, while his mind whirled.

The day after was when he threw himself at Rassilon and nearly got sucked back into the Time War. He knew something had happened to drag him to this universe, but he had thought that it was a side effect of his failed regeneration energy meeting Rassilon's Gauntlet.

"Koschei?" Susan was looking at him with worried eyes and he was torn in two. He needed to comfort her, to deal with the miscarriage and how she was feeling, but he also had to understand what had happened. If it was possible that she had used the power of the Arkytior, if she'd done it without even knowing she had, what else could happen?

"Susan, do you remember what happened that day, the day after Christmas?" he asked her and she stared at him.

"You want to talk about that right now?" she asked him with a frown, her feelings going hurt and confused.

"Susan, Donna said you glowed golden and shouted about saving someone," he told her and the blood drained out of her face.

"Oh God," she whimpered.

"Is this a problem?" Martha asked and Susan looked at her with unseeing eyes.

"I can't have. I'd remember!" she insisted.

"Susan, Love, please try to think," he begged, suddenly feeling cold and afraid. He clutched her against him as though she could be taken from him at any instant.

"Donna said this?" she asked and Martha nodded. "I don't know, Shay. I remember feeling sick and dizzy and everything going fuzzy and then I woke up in the hospital," she shook her head and he could feel her confusion and fear.

"It's all right, Love," he soothed and she jerked back from him, eyes wide in distress and anxiety.

"All right? It's not all right!" she retorted. "What if used _that_? What if I did something and I don't even remember doing it?"

"If you did, then you saved my life. Again," he reminded her and she nodded slowly.

"I think that's the key, Shay," she admitted slowly and he sighed out.

"I just need to stop being quite so jeopardy friendly and everything will be fine," he teased, trying to ease that terrible anxious look from her eyes.

"Someone want to fill me in on this?" Martha interrupted and Susan looked at her as if she only just recalled her presence.

"I'm not sure how to explain it, honestly," she answered.

"Susan has super-powers, she can't control them, and so she doesn't use them. She might have accidently used them when I was in danger and can't remember. This is bad because she doesn't want to use them at all," he rattled off and Martha looked at him with a skeptical expression that slowly changed to belief as she took in Susan's fearful demeanor.

"Okay. That definitely doesn't sound good," Martha agreed.

"I just won't nearly die anymore and then you won't feel a need to save me. Problem solved." Susan's look of sheer disbelief made him shrug. She looked at him and then a smile blossomed across her face.

"Oh, you ridiculous man!" she chortled and kissed him. He was still worried, they both were, but when one is helpless in the face of overwhelming odds the only thing left to do was crack a joke.

* * *

Darginian was on the range when Hedia found him. He'd been working his way through every weapon in Torchwood's arsenal. He was an excellent shot, of course. He'd been trained very well. However the recoil on the projectile weapons took some getting used to.

He set down the SIG-Sauer P226, and unloaded it, before he cleared the breech, and cased it. He saw Hedia waiting by the door and felt a twinge of unease. She rarely sought him out, usually only when something had gone wrong.

He packed up his gear, collected his targets and waited for the range master to call 'all clear' before he exited the area, Hedia falling in beside him.

"Hedia," he greeted her.

"Darginian," she replied.

"Problem?"

"Found another city on the Southern Continent. There's a library," she told him and he stopped and gave her an amused look.

"The Doctor will be pleased," he commented and she nodded. She wasn't much of a talker, he thought to himself, but what little she did say was worth listening to.

He let his mind drift back to the War, to the days of following the Master through battlefields, the two of them with their uneasy friendship, tiptoeing through minefields. Hedia reminded him of that. He felt as though she was like Koschei that way. She looked simple from the outside, but there was a lot of complexity in her.

"Let's go tell him," he told her with a wave of his hand and they walked the curving paths of the city towards the plaza.

Hedia was nearly his own height, long and rangy where he was broad shouldered and well-muscled. He had been a fighting man for centuries, while she'd been an explorer, a wanderer, he was a War Horse while she was a Mustang. Her hair was a wheat colored mass that she had bound up in a long braid, her eyes were an indeterminate shade between blue and green, like a cloudy jade. Her face was long with sharp cheekbones and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose. There was something solitary and closed off about her, as though she was a world all on her own.

He wondered if she was lonely, but he didn't know how to ask.

* * *

Andred and Leela were sitting at a table with Col. Mace, Kate Stewart, and several other of UNIT's top brass.

"The preliminary report from the Shadow Proclamation is that a trade and tech embargo has been laid upon the Draconian Empire while the charges are investigated. The investigation should take about two weeks to complete and, if found to be substantiated, formal charges will be made, and the issue will go to trial," Andred reported and the others nodded.

"What are the penalties for their crimes?" Col. Mace asked next and Andred tapped his tablet with a stylus.

"The Shadow Proclamation is the police arm of the Galactic Federation, they will apply do the investigation and arrests, but the Federations Judicial System will conduct the trial and apply penalties," he informed them, just to make sure they were all clear. There were nods all around and he continued. "The maximum penalty for interfering in a class 3 world is complete interdiction. That means no outside contact, no trade, no travel off their own worlds, no imports or exports, nothing, they would be radio silent for a maximum of twenty years. For a galactic race this is a huge penalty, it means being unable to have access to the Galactic Stock Exchange, their financial sector could crash, their citizen will be furious, and their entire economy could crash."

"That doesn't sound particularly terrible," Col. Mace commented.

"Look, their leadership, the people that gave the orders, will go to jail." Leela interrupted, explaining further. "The world that elected that leadership will also be punished. The Galactic Federation takes these things very seriously. It may not sound like much to you, but putting a whole planet under 'house arrest' is actually pretty serious."

"We'll take your word for it," Kate told them with a shrug. "It doesn't mean much to us, since we can't really leave our world anyway."

"Yes, well, your economy also isn't dependent on imports from the Garazone System, either," Andred pointed out and the UNIT soldiers all nodded.

"This includes a restriction on all military vessels. They have to be verifiably stood down for the duration," Andred added with a grin. "Federation soldiers will be stationed on their ships to prevent them from doing anything untoward."

"Now that I like!" Col. Mace grinned. "That's what I wanted to hear."


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29 – Temporal Issues

The last of the trips from Karn were complete and the Doctor was sitting in a ring of TARDIS corals, working on figuring out how to make this whole thing work. Rose was sitting beside him, her fingers busy as she worked through the Block Transfer Mathematics for transferring the corals into consoles of their own. Her face was creased in a frown as her stylus flew across her pad.

They had used the nano-assemblers to build a domed structure not too far from where the large square blocks of Torchwood 5 and the UNIT HQ – Gallifrey, were nestled against the mountainside north of the city. If he looked out his window he could see his family's mountain rising up, K'anpo's house and his family's home glinting from the slopes far above.

Right now the fledgling nursery was home to only about a dozen corals, but it was a beginning. The coral the other Doctor had given him was among them. It was a piece of his own darling girl and he planned to use that one for his own TARDIS.

"How's it coming?" he asked her and she looked up at him. Her eyes were serious and slightly unfocused and he realized that Malla was doing the driving just then.

"Once the power issues are solved, I have the math done for a series of type 100s. I haven't configured any of them as War TARDIS, no reason to, firstly, and it seems as though it would be a bad idea anyway, what with the Shadow Architect being so nervous about us," she told him and smiled, her smile completely different from Rose's.

Deep inside of him something stirred and in a sudden rush Rand was there in the back of his head.

"Did you make sure to check the measurements, Mal, you always forget the intra-dimensional width," his voice was saying and Malla's lips curled up and her eyes went soft and sweet.

"I'll check again, Rand," she told him and kissed him gently. Rand returned the kiss and then gave her a smile that felt odd on the Doctor's face. It was the strangest sensation, to have another mind moving through his own body, but he didn't resist it. Malla and Rand had been his friends, his Mum's students, and Malla had done nothing but help Rose for all this time. Lending his body to Rand for a few moments was the least he could do.

"Thank you, Theta," Rand murmured in the back of his head and he just let himself doze. Rand slipped a hand behind his wife's head and kissed her, letting himself move fully forward into the body for the first time. She leaned into the kiss, her borrowed mouth warm and soft on his.

"I love you," she murmured in his mind and he rested his forehead against hers.

"Always and forever, my own hearts," he answered and she entwined her mind through his, the two of them blending into one soul for an eternal instant before they separated and withdrew back into the deep places of the Doctor and Rose's souls.

The Doctor came back to himself and saw a look of wonderment on Rose's face that mirrored his feelings exactly. To be touched, even peripherally, by a love so deep and so profound moved him.

"How can they be so incredibly kind," she asked him. "I don't think I could resist taking over and having a life with you again."

"They do have a life together, can't you feel it? Their minds are never apart, not even for a moment. We can give them moments of physical expression, but that's not that important to them. They are together, they have their bond and it's so deep, so strong, that a body is a mere detail." He was smiling, holding Rose against him and there was a quiet joy in his heart. "Someday Rose, we'll have wound our way that deep into each other and that will be us," he murmured and she looked up at him with a sudden small frown.

"Is that was Shay and Susan have?" she asked him and he nodded. That moment of joining was so intense, so magical, even though he was catching just the edges of it, it was beyond anything he'd imagined. "God, that must have been awful at first," she sighed out and he thought about it and was suddenly appalled.

"Yeah, to be that deeply wound inside of someone you didn't love, didn't maybe even like that much, it must have been excruciating." A soft laugh made them look up and they spotted Susan standing in the doorway, a smile on her face.

"Being apart from him is what hurt," she told them with a head shake. "But being wound up in him? No. From the first moment that I saw the soul of that beautiful, incredible, brilliant man of mine, I loved him. It took me way too long to figure it out, of course," she grinned at Rose. "Being thick runs in the family, you know."

"Oi!" he protested as Rose laughed. "Does not!"

"It does, Grandfather," she snarked back. "But when we do figure it out, we're solid, true, and eternally faithful," she told Rose, her expression filled with a sweet tenderness that made his hearts ache.

"That bit's true," he whispered and gathered Rose against him again.

"Yeah, you lot aren't all bad," Rose teased with a grin up at him and he kissed her.

"Still, I thought you were working on growing TARDIS," Susan pointed out and he grinned at Rose.

"Yeah, well, we got distracted," he admitted and she chuckled.

"Well, that's understandable," she answered softly and sent a gentle affection to him that made his hearts contract a little. Susan rarely touched minds with him, so when she did, it was all the more special. He had guessed why she was so restrained these days and it hurt to think about what had been done to her.

"How's Koschei's project going," he asked next, just to watch her eyes glow as she thought about her husband.

"He's almost done. The first of the Vortex Manipulators should be ready soon," she told him and he cocked his head at her.

"You gonna be up to this?" he asked her and she shrugged.

"Rose can't go, she can't leave Jenny for two days, you can't go, you're still building the Earth's defenses with Koschei, and he can't go either, even if he wasn't working on that, since having Harold Saxon showing up, looking for the Doctor, would go very badly. Besides which, I still have the strongest connection to Grandfather. I'm the only one who _can_ go," she reminded him and he sighed.

"I'm just worried, that's all. You'll be stuck in a different universe for two days while the Anchor recharges and we have no idea where you'll end up exactly," he sighed.

"You'll be doing the math, Grandfather, so I'll be fine." She smiled at him and her faith in his abilities was flattering, but he was still worried. It didn't make him at all happy to risk her like this.

* * *

"No!" Koschei shouted and the Doctor sighed. "She's not going, not alone!"

"We only have one Vortex Manipulator built and the math gets much harder compensating for two people," he pointed out, but the blond was shaking his head, refusing to even think about it.

"I can't lose her, Doctor, I just can't," he ground out, hands clenched at his side and jaw set.

"Who said anything about losing her? She'd be gone for two days tops and then she'd be back again," he soothed and watched as Koschei began to pace up and down the length of the workshop, grabbing at his hair and looking near frantic.

Susan burst through the door, looking winded, and her husband spun on his heel and stared at her wide-eyed. She crossed to him and he grabbed her, clutching her to him like she was a talisman against the darkness.

"What's wrong?" Susan asked him, over Koschei's shoulder and he sighed at his granddaughter.

"He's not happy about you using the Vortex Manipulator to go to the other universe," he explained.

"Not happy?" Koschei shouted, pushing away from Susan and staring at his best friend with an expression of deepest anger. "She's not going! I won't allow it!"

"Excuse me?" Susan interrupted her tone cool and her eyes flashing. Koschei saw the warning signs and tried to calm down, but he was obviously still terrified and couldn't seem to stop his mouth from flapping.

"You can't go! It's too dangerous! You're a doctor, not a soldier and it's too far away, you just can't Susan, you can't!" he babbled and Susan narrowed her eyes at him.

"I love you and I know you love me, but that doesn't give you the right to dictate my choices to me, Shay," she told him in an admirably calm voice. "Yes, I'm a doctor, not a soldier, but," she whipped out her sonic screwdriver. "I was adventuring for two centuries before I met you, I've fought Daleks, both before and during the War, and I am perfectly capable of kicking the arse of anyone who bothers me." She turned the setting on her screwdriver and then displayed it to him. "Do you know what that is?" she asked and Koschei looked closely at the device and his eyes widened.

"You have a neural inhibitor in there?" he choked and she smiled at him, a smile that was cold and hard.

"I have several things in here that Great Gran thought would be useful for me," she answered and the Doctor whistled. His mum was pretty darn inventive. He'd not be surprised if she had a d-mat in there as well. "After all, we were worried that Rassilon might try to kill my mind," she reminded him and both men winced.

"I know that you're amazing, Susan, I do, really. I just don't think I could survive losing you again," Koschei whispered and Susan stepped into his embrace, holding him, her face filled with the sorrow that memory brought to them both.

"I know, love, which is why I'll be really careful," she assured him and he groaned.

"I wish I'd never made the damn thing," he spat out bitterly, his eyes scrunched tight and his arms crushing her to him.

"Tell you what, love, you can put in any upgrades on my sonic you want to, all right?" she told him and he relaxed his grip on her, drawing back enough to look into her eyes.

"How about I just chain you to a wall and send someone else," Shay sighed out and she grinned at him.

"Sounds like fun, but maybe later," she teased and her husband dropped his head down, scrubbing at his face with his hand.

The Doctor could see that he was beaten. Susan was stubborn and determined, she could wear down a diamond given enough time and he well knew it. It was obvious though that he hated the idea of risking her in any way. The Doctor couldn't say he liked it much either, but Susan had survived things no other sentient being had ever survived before and come out spitting nails. He couldn't see how saying that "it was too dangerous" was anything but an insult to her.

"Fine, but I'm putting in a wood setting and a laser that can cut through a ship's hull!" Koschei growled and Susan rewarded him with a kiss.

"Yes, dear," she answered with a sweet compliance that was all the more ironic for the steamrolling she'd just done. The Doctor wasn't quite certain that Susan wasn't the Master's karmic comeuppance for all the centuries of dark deeds he'd performed. She was certainly not letting him have an easy time of it.

* * *

"Damn you, woman," he groaned and Susan looked up at him, feeling just how much it hurt him to even think of her being that far away.

"He's my grandfather, the man who raised me and protected me. I have to do this, I have to try. He's over there, all alone, the last of our race in that universe. I have to at least make the effort to contact him, please Shay," she murmured, her hands entwined with his, her face earnest and her voice filled with her need for him to understand. Koschei was watching her and the love in his eyes was so raw and desperate that her grandfather turned away to look out the window, giving them some privacy.

"I know," he admitted and it was an agonized groan. "I do, I just go a little mad when I think about being so far away from you."

"It doesn't make me happy either," she admitted. "I hate the idea of not being able to feel you like this." She took a deep breath. "But he'd do it for me." Grandfather looked over at her in surprise and she touched a gentle finger to Koschei's twisted smile, born from a place of rueful understanding and agonized love.

"He would too, stupid git," Koschei grumbled, eyes suspiciously wet.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested and they both looked at him, hands still clasped tightly together, faces still strained, but with smiles slowly reasserting themselves.

"Seriously, Theta, you're not the sharpest sword in the armory," Koschei teased, eyes lightening, and Grandfather crossed his arms and pouted a bit.

"Be nice or I'll make sure the math lands her in a room full of gorgeous men," he snarked and Susan watched as Koschei's face became troubled.

"Grandfather!" Susan scolded and then looked at her husband with an annoyed expression. "Shay, we're bonded, remember? I can't feel anything for any other man; it just isn't possible with our bond going this deep." Grandfather blinked in surprise.

"Wait! What?" he interrupted and Susan rolled her eyes at him. "What makes you say that?"

"Two hundred years of celibacy is what!" she grumbled and Koschei's face was filled with tender affection.

"Same here, love," he reminded her and she grinned up at him.

"So, you're saying that all that time during the war, you weren't interested in anyone else because you were bonded to the Master?" he interrupted and they both turned to look at him.

"Yes, Grandfather," she answered. "Why?"

"All that time, I thought you were still in mourning for David, I thought you were so broken up by him that you never fell in love with anyone because of him," he explained, looking at her with chagrin.

"I was still mourning David, I probably always will be. I loved him," she told the Doctor and Koschei brushed her cheek with his finger, his eyes gentle on hers. "But the reason I never was interested in any of the various suitors being flung at my head, besides the fact that they were all insipid, tedious, and dull, was that I was bound up in Koschei already."

"I was terrified of falling in love with Rose, partly because I thought you had been just that destroyed by losing David," he admitted and Susan rolled her eyes at him.

"Grandfather, even if I hadn't been head over heels for Koschei, I'd probably not have dated any of those dolts, anyway. You raised me, after all, so why would I settle for some boring button pusher with more hair than brains, whose imagination and creativity had been sucked out of him?" she asked with her hands on her hips and her head tilted to one side.

"Head over heels, were you?" Koschei latched onto her words with a sultry smile and she sighed at him.

"Not answering that, your ego is massive enough already, without me pandering to it!" she grumbled, but he slipped his arms around her and drew her close.

"If you two are going to be like that, I'm going for a walk," Grandfather grumbled and stomped out of the workshop, leaving them alone.

"Come on, you can't say something so interesting and then stop there," he pursued, his mouth against her ear, and she looked up at him with a grin and a head shake. "Susan, you have to know that I fell in love with you the very first time I ever saw you, when I went into your mind and saw David in your memory I was so damn jealous," he murmured and she shivered in his arms. "I saw that first kiss and I wanted to be the one you were kissing, you were all I could see from the first moment you looked up at me. I wasn't crzy enough not to see how beautiful you are, how amazing and brilliant you are," he sighed and she felt herself melting against him.

"Yeah, well, I've never seen anything as gorgeous as your center, love, and maybe I did fall pretty hard from the first," she grumbled and he chuckled softly. "But you were all wrapped up in those compulsions and it scared me to death, thinking I might never get through to you, thinking I was bound up in a madman's soul forever, with no hope of ever being able to get free, and never imagining that you felt anything for me but contempt." He cuddled her tightly and she pressed her face against his shoulder, remembering that long lonely time. "I was left there cold and sane and all alone, with a raving nutter in my head and another one trying to pull me apart."

"I'm here now and mostly sane," he reminded her and she tilted her head up.

"And you're the one I'm kissing," she pointed out and matched word to deed. "There aren't any other men in my arms, love, just you."

"I'll kill any man that touches you, Susan," he growled and his eyes were dark with jealousy and possessiveness. She groaned and waved the sonic in front of him.

"Hello, not frail or helpless and perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" she reminded him and he looked at her, abashed.

"Yes, dear," he answered with mock submissiveness and she giggled.

"Oh you ridiculous man!"


	30. Chapter 30

A/N - So this next bit is just Susan/Shay for a chapter or so, then we go back to everyone else again. I hope you don't mind too much.

Chapter 30 – Paradoxically

Susan watched her husband pacing and could feel the waves of fear and concern radiating off of him. She was working very hard not to be impatient with him.

"I held off Rassilon, Shay," she ground out. "So, perhaps could you get a grip?" He nodded, but his worry didn't really subside and she rolled her eyes at her grandfather.

"I'll keep an eye on him while you're gone," he promised and she looked over at Dar, where he was leaning against a wall.

"Sit on him if you have to," she instructed him and the hulking blond grinned at her.

"I shall do your will, my Princess," he teased back and she glared at him.

"You know I hate it when you call me that," she grumbled and then hit the button.

* * *

Susan felt the world jolt underneath her and then landed hard on unfamiliar pavement. She was feeling wobbly and sick from traveling the Vortex without a capsule. Vortex Manipulator was a lousy way to travel.

She stood up and brushed herself off. It seemed to have worked well so far, this was definitely her universe, she could feel it.

Something was wrong though. She paused to listen and her mouth dropped open in shock. She could hear the Time Lords. Gallifrey was here, undestroyed. Tears sprang into her eyes, the warm familiarity of their minds so welcome and so long missed. Still, this was a problem.

She was in the wrong time. She opened herself to the time stream and felt about. Ah, there she was, about seventy years old, still a child, and traveling with her grandfather in his first body still. She smiled as the memories of that time warmed her through and then shook herself and focused on her present predicament.

She checked the Vortex Manipulator on her wrist. Forty-eight hours until the anchor would recharge. She looked around with a frown; she just needed to get through two days without crossing her own time stream. No problem.

She hitched her satchel higher on her shoulder and considered the view. The planet wasn't Earth, she guessed, it was a little too curvy in its architecture for a human built enclave, and they were way too early in the time stream for it to be an earth colony. She turned slowly, trying to get her bearings and saw a humanoid woman, in clothing that proclaimed her profession, striding up the sidewalk. She was a trifle blue with mottled patterning and Susan nodded to herself. The planet had to be Gumphus, she decided.

So, that made this world part of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. She'd never been here before, so that ought to make it easier for her to avoid herself. She hadn't heard much good about the place though, they seemed to be a millennia's old civilization that survived through criminal activities and slave trading. That could get awkward, she sighed. She needed to find someplace safe to hole up until she could use the Vortex Manipulator again and get home.

She missed her TARDIS already.

Three rather burly men came running towards Susan shouting and she took to her heels, not sure if they were slavers or not, but not about to wait around for the answer. She passed the prostitute and went towards the steps of the nearest building. The woman gave the thugs a look of alarm and took off, leaving Susan to face them alone.

She scampered up the stairs and found the door unlocked. She swung it shut behind her and slid the bolts closed with a feeling of relief.

"Are you the prostitute that the Jagrafess sent?" a voice as smooth as satin asked her and she swung around in shock. Koschei, she thought to herself, only it wasn't, not really.

It was the Master.

He looked so young that she was speechless for a moment. The dark hair, going a trifle grey at the temples, ought to have made him look older, but his eyes, deep-set and topped with heavy dark brows, lacked the sorrow and grief that so often shadowed her Koschei's. He was wearing a black suit and she was trying really hard not to think about how good he looked in it.

The girl that ran away, she realized, that must have been the one he was waiting for. She opened her mouth to tell him that and something else came out.

"Yes," she answered and then wondered why the hell she'd just said that. What was wrong with her? She needed to get away from this potential paradox and quickly. Whatever he was doing here, she probably wouldn't want to know about either.

"You're better dressed than the last one, prettier too," he commented and raked her with a look that made her mouth go dry with want. Oh my, it seems that it didn't matter what body he wore, he was utterly irresistible to her. He walked over, placed his black gloved hands on either side of her, against the door, and leaned close. She was studying his face, the way his eyes moved over her, the differences and similarities, and he frowned.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"You're from Gallifrey," he accused.

"Is that a problem?" She ran a finger along his chest and watched the way his breath hitched with interest. So, he wasn't immune to her either.

"Are you a CIA agent?" he asked with a menacing glare and she laughed.

"Great Omega, no!" she assured him. "Is it so strange to you that there are others besides yourself that find life on Gallifrey a bit restrictive?" she shrugged, it wasn't a lie, she knew better than to try to lie to him outright, but it skirted the edge, and he tilted his head to study her.

"You're a renegade?"

"Let's just say that going back to Gallifrey isn't an option for me," she answered him and that was definitely the truth. He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers and she twined her arms around his neck, her body responding as it would have to her husband. After all, someday he would be her husband.

Assuming that she wasn't ruining her future by being here with him right now. That was a real issue, but when he kissed her, she lost that train of thought very quickly. He pushed her up against the door, plundering her mouth, aggressive, demanding.

This wasn't her Koschei, she reminded herself, not yet anyway. She needed to be careful. This was, after all, the homicidal psychopath that kept trying to take over the universe. Yet, his kiss was the same as she remembered from their shared dreams and it aroused her in exactly the same way. She had no resistance at all to his touch and found herself surrendering without even the pretense of a fight. She was kissing him back with a fierce need that equaled his own and when he broke the embrace and stepped back, they were both panting and breathless.

"What's a Time Lady doing working as a prostitute?" he asked her next and she dropped her chin and looked up at him through her hair, a wicked smile on her face.

"Girl's got to eat," she answered and he crossed his arms, aroused, hungry for her, but still suspicious. "Look, if you don't want me, have the Jagrafess send you someone else," she told him with a shrug and watched him fight with his own desires for a moment.

"No," he said, eyes roaming over her body. "I want you," he admitted and extended a hand to her. She went to him eagerly, even though she knew this was a bad idea. Even knowing that she could be messing with her own timeline, she wanted him as well.

He pulled her up an elegant staircase and into a huge bedroom. She looked around in curiosity. No wonder Koschei thought that the Doctor and Rose's Chelsea flat was unimpressive. This place was like a palace.

The bed was huge and draped with black velvet curtains, the sheets a black satin that looked cool and inviting. Black, she noted was a bit of a theme here, that and gold. It was done in an opulent style that reminded her of Versailles of long ago.

"Take off your clothes and get on the bed," he ordered and she smiled, her back turned to him, as she slowly dropped her skirt and then pulled off her blouse. She dropped the Vortex Manipulator and kicked it under the bed; it would be too hard to explain. She covered the movement by displaying the underwear set Koschei had bought for her. She knew that the sight of her in garters and black lace tended to make him a bit weak in the knees. "Wait."

She turned around and saw him stalking towards her, his eyes blazing with heat.

"See something you like?" she teased and he stopped in front of her, slowly stripping off his gloves. He dropped them to the floor and then reached out and ran his bare hands along the lace of her bra. She shivered, looking up at him, the want in his eyes making her own legs feel wobbly.

"You're not afraid of me?" he asked and she shook her head in negation. "You know who I am, don't you?"

"You're the Master," she answered and he cupped her face in his hand, tracing her mouth with his thumb.

"Yet, you're not afraid of me?" He was studying her and she was watching that brilliant mind at work with a feeling of wonder.

"No," she responded. "Do you want me to be?" she asked him, curious about this earlier version of him.

"No," he answered and seemed surprised at his own response. She reached for him, undoing his jacket and slipping it from his shoulders and then tugging at his jumper, pulling it over his head in a quick motion. Having bared his chest, she ran her hands over him and bent her head to run a tongue along his skin. He hissed and grabbed her face, pulling her mouth back to his.

"What do you want?" she asked next, wanting to give him some joy, some pleasure during a part of his life when she knew that he was very much alone and lonely.

"Get on the bed," he directed and she obeyed. She lay down and watched him approach. He was skittish, she realized, unsure of whether or not she was safe to be around and she extended a hand to him in invitation, her eyes serious, no more teasing left in her.

He dropped his trousers and skinned out of his pants, then reached over and snapped open her bra, slipping it away slowly; watching every motion like a cat watched a mouse. She was surprised at how strong the connection between them still was, even before they had really met. She wanted him as much as she wanted her own version of him and it puzzled her.

* * *

The Master was quite certain that he'd lost his mind. There was no way that some random Time Lady was wandering around working as a prostitute for the Jagrafess, it wasn't possible, yet he could no more have turned her away than he could have breathed vacuum.

She'd been leaning against the door, her hair a waterfall of copper light, her eyes a chocolate brown, her mouth pink and perfect, her body spectacular enough all on its own to tempt him and he'd wanted her so much he could hardly stand it.

How long had it been since he'd had a woman of his own species underneath him? Centuries at least. She was as wild, as passionate, and as aggressive as he was, and he hadn't felt so much pleasure in the act of sex in a very long time. She was incredible, he'd never felt anything to compare. They were like two puzzle pieces that fit together.

Afterward, he collapsed onto the bed beside her and lay there panting, his hearts pounding. Now, he knew, was his moment of vulnerability, if she was an assassin, this was the time for her to make her move. He watched her closely, waiting to see what she'd do next. She smiled at him and then turned to snuggle against his side. She rested her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes in contentment. He lay still, confused by her actions. She fit no category that he was familiar with.

"That was very nice," she murmured and he shot her a look of disbelief.

"Very nice?" he asked, feeling a bit offended. She opened her eyes and grinned at him.

"Well, maybe a bit better than nice, but you'll have to work harder for a higher rating," she teased, but her eyes on his face were gentle. He laughed.

"Let's see how you rate this," he murmured and proceeded to rise to the challenge. She wasn't cool and detached like the other girl's he'd hired in the past and it baffled him a bit. This girl was decidedly unusual. The second time was even more intense and he was wondering if this was a pattern of escalation because if so, he was in serious trouble.

"Definitely an improvement," she murmured with a sultry smile. "But we haven't hit a top rating just yet."

He should have been insulted by her cheeky comeback, but he was amused instead. She was angling for more and he was quite willing. A Time Lord's stamina was no mean thing and he meant to show her all of his tricks before he was done with her.

"What's your name?" he asked and she looked uncertain for the first time.

"What do you want it to be?" she asked him and he shook his head.

"I'll have none of that, girl, I want your actual name," he insisted and she turned her head and looked at him.

"I'm nothing and no one. I was just hired to do a job," she sighed out and he could feel that she was lying, her eyes suddenly sad, as though she didn't like having to tell him something not true.

"Why won't you tell me?" he asked and her eyes showed a sorrow so profound that he regretted asking.

"Please don't," she requested and caressed his face with her fingertips, looking at him with tragic eyes and he could feel the undercurrents of pain in her. For some reason he couldn't have named even to himself, he didn't like the sight of her distress.

"Miranda," he decided and she smiled up at him. He dropped his face down and kissed her shoulder blade and she responded with flattering eagerness. Whoever she was, she was driving him mad. He couldn't seem to get enough of her and that she seemed to feel the same way was something of a miracle.

After all, it wasn't every day that beautiful young Time Ladies fell willingly into his bed, maybe it was best not to look this gift horse too closely in the mouth.

* * *

Susan woke, curled against her husband as usual, and then had a slight disorientation as she took in the gray-streaked goatee and lined face. She felt sad, thinking about all that he was suffering just then. He was centuries away from escaping the drumbeat and the War was still far in his future.

Two hundred years of yearning and uncertainty was also still in his future and it was so tempting to tell him everything, to save him from that pain. She loved him so much and yet, she could say nothing, for fear of changing their history and destroying the future they had together.

His eyes opened and he looked at her with confusion.

"You're still here?" he asked and there was wonderment under the harshness of his words.

"I'm all yours for forty-eight hours," she told him and it was something of a lie, because in truth, she would always be his, as he was hers.

"What if I want you for longer than that?" he asked and she kissed him softly, his beard tickling her chin.

"I'm leaving the planet in two days, off to my next customer," she told him, which was true, though the next 'customer' was actually his future self. He frowned and his eyes burned with a very familiar jealousy.

"I don't want you to go," he insisted and she felt her hearts breaking. It was going to be such a long lonely time for him without her.

"I don't have a choice," she sighed out and he grabbed her and pulled her down on top of him.

"If someone is threatening you, I'll just kill them," he informed her and she grinned at him.

"We have better things to do," she informed him. "Let's just enjoy what we have and not worry about later."

* * *

He wasn't sure what her situation was and he didn't care. He wasn't letting her go in two days, or ever. He decided that he was going to keep her, even if he had to chain her to a wall in his TARDIS.

She was intoxicating, delightful, she seemed to know everything that pleased him, and he was not about to let her escape. He kept her tucked against him, not willing to let her get too far away and she burrowed against him, seemingly quite content with that.

Something about her demeanor bothered him. He studied her, the curving line of breast to waist to hip and ran his hands along her, memorizing every inch. She showed no self-consciousness, merely returned his regard, a smile in her eyes, and a softness in her face that no prostitute had ever had. There was something off about the whole thing.

She kissed him, derailing his train of thought completely. When she moved against him, it was impossible to think about anything else, but the exquisite feel of her skin touching his.

It didn't matter anyway; he'd have all the time he wanted to pry her secrets out of her.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31 – Time Together

Sometime later, she dragged herself from the bed and went into the vast bathroom, where there was a bathtub the size of Rose's kitchen and more gold than the Currency Exchange. She used the facilities and then went back to the bedroom.

The Master watched her return with hooded eyes and she wondered what he was thinking. She wasn't bound to him yet in this body, so the connection was fairly tenuous and she couldn't read him the way she could Koschei.

"Ready for round two?" she asked and he shook his head, rising from the bed.

"I have work to do this morning," he informed her, though his eyes were roaming over her body with obvious interest.

"Very well," she shrugged. "I'll be here when you get back." She opened her satchel and pulled out some clean clothes.

"There are clothes in the wardrobes, wear something that will please me," he instructed and she looked up at him with an amused quirk of her mouth.

"Is that a challenge?" she asked and his lips curled up in that smile that always made her hearts flutter.

"You may consider it such." He turned away and started getting dressed. She laid herself across the bed and just watched, admiring the play of his muscles and the easy grace of him. He glanced back over his shoulder with a considering look. "Enjoying the view?"

"Oh yes, very much," she purred and he chuckled, apparently surprised by her again. What was it with her? Even as a homicidal psychopath, she found him utterly gorgeous. It wasn't fair. She ought to have some resistance to a man who was responsible for the deaths of millions. Yet, when he turned around, doing up his tie, her mouth went dry and the urge to rip the clothes right back off of him was nearly overwhelming.

She got up off the bed and walked over to him, hips swaying and eyes filled with everything she wanted to do with him and very carefully she straightened his tie for him.

"Have a nice day at work," she told him, looking up at him with a smoldering gaze.

"Miranda, I suspect that you are a very expensive vice," he groaned and she smiled.

"There are very few who can afford me, it's true. But, had I known what I was in for here, I would have cut my rates," she told him and brushed his lips with her own. He dropped his mouth down and kissed her more thoroughly, but this time was different, there was something possessive in the kiss, as though he was branding her with his mouth.

"Will you be gone long?" she asked.

"Perhaps, but while I'm gone, you're not to leave this suite. There is a kitchenette in the next room if you're hungry, but you will stay in these rooms, understand?" He was glaring at her and she simply nodded. "My men are not all as civilized as I am," he warned and she nodded more vigorously, understanding his meaning quite clearly.

"I'll stay put," she assured him. After all, she was there posing as a prostitute. To the sort of men the Master was likely to employ, that put her in a dangerous position.

He stared at her and she could feel him fighting his own desires. She could tell that he didn't like the feeling of being out of control. He was hesitating and that worried her.

"Keep your mind on whatever you're doing, Master," she chided him. "I'll wait, but you stay focused." He shot her a disbelieving glance.

"Worried about me?" he asked with a snort.

"Well, if you get yourself injured out there, you won't be able to dance with me when you get back," she reminded him playfully, trying to hide her genuine concern. If she got Koschei killed before they actually met, she'd be very unhappy. He cocked his head, studying her again, and she was afraid that he'd seen through her.

He stepped up to her again, gripping her chin in his hand and staring into her eyes.

"Who are you? Tell me!" he insisted and tried to get into her mind to compel her. She held him off with little trouble, after all she had defenses against this version of him, and he'd trained her himself in shield techniques.

"I'm Miranda, you said so yourself," she replied and his eyes on hers were angry and fierce. He didn't like being thwarted.

"What are you?" he asked next and she leaned into his hand, letting her eyes drift half closed.

"Whatever you need me to be," she answered, afraid that she was revealing far too much of her feelings to him, and he released her, eyes gone hot with desire, and turned to leave. "Mind on your work!" she reminded him and he looked back at her with a smirk.

"I am the Master. I don't need your concern, Miranda," he rebuked her and she nodded her acquiescence.

Still, long after he'd gone, she continued to worry about him.

* * *

Damn the woman, but she was correct. Ever since he'd seen her standing in his hallway, she'd consumed his attention. Even now, when he knew he had to be at his best for this meeting with the high ranking Dons of the Daxrepart Family, all he could think about was getting back to her and tying her to the bedposts.

He needed the aid of the Dons to get certain materials he needed for his next project, but he just couldn't focus on the business as much as he ought to be. He ended up paying more for the materials then he'd intended to and was eager to get back. Consequently, he wasn't as cautious as he ought to have been.

* * *

Susan opened the fridge and found carefully preserved meals in labeled storage boxes stacked up inside. She reached in and searched through them until she found one labeled "Shepherd's Pie" and took it out. A quick tug on the seal and it heated itself. She found a fork and settled herself down on a stool at the breakfast bar. She was starving. She'd worked up a serious appetite, she thought to herself with a smirk.

This room had less of an obsession with black, she noted, the colors were still muted though, dark purple upholstery on the stools, the counters were black marble, speckled with flecks of pyrite, but the cabinets were painted in grey. A window over the sink looked out over the streets and gave a pleasant prospect of houses and gardens.

She ate her food with enjoyment, his cook was excellent.

After she ate, she took a bath, there was no point in letting that huge tub go to waste, after all. She scrubbed herself and soaked for a bit and then crawled out, feeling restless and unsettled.

She wandered over to the wardrobe next and opened it up to take an inventory of the women's clothing in it. A surge of jealousy made her fingers tighten on a Chinese Cheong Sang that she found inside. She was pretty sure she knew which one of the Master's 'toys' had left that here. She shoved it aside and spent some time torturing herself with the rest of the clothes, imagining all the women he'd had before, and wondering if being bound to her was a burden to him. Did he miss the long parade of women that had been one of the hallmarks of his bachelor days?

Nothing really suited her, or fit what she thought Koschei might like her in, nor did she feel like wearing the cast-offs of his old girlfriends.

She grinned and went over to his wardrobe, looking inside with interest. Suits, shirts, ties, all in various patterns and shades, though all in a subdued palate. She smiled to herself and began choosing an outfit.

* * *

The Master stopped in his office downstairs and made sure his body was healed from the black eye. The last thing he needed was to have Miranda fussing over him, when what he wanted was to continue where they'd left off. He was annoyed with himself, but he knew he'd eventually tire of the girl, so he decided to cancel his further business until he'd done so. His men didn't care, they were paid regardless, though there were some crude comments that he ignored.

He stepped into his bedroom and saw her asleep on the divan, wearing some of his clothes, and realized, from his body's reaction, that tiring of her wasn't going to happen any time soon.

She woke and looked up at him, sleepy eyes and tousled hair only making her more desirable. Her lips stretched into a smile of welcome and he could see no deception in her reaction. This wasn't the practiced artifice of a professional; this was genuine pleasure in his return.

"I hope you weren't bored, Miranda," he enquired and she stretched, arching her back in a manner that pulled the shirt open and revealed the black lacy bra beneath. He had to force himself to breathe normally at the sight.

"No, just resting up for you," she teased, her eyes warm on his and he nodded, lips curling up in amusement. Damn but she knew just what to say to rouse him.

She rose languidly from the divan and stalked towards him and his hearts sped up. No, he wasn't going to be bored with her for a very long time. He let his eyes take in her outfit and he cocked his head as if considering it carefully. She grinned at his playacting and draped her arms around his neck.

"This is the outfit, you chose to please me?" he asked and she leaned in and brushed her lips against his. He found his mouth opening involuntarily at that feather light touch and he nearly groaned aloud at the sudden spike of arousal.

"Did I choose wrongly?" she asked, her eyes bold and confident, and he chuckled.

"No, you did not," he replied and ran his hands down her back, pulling her against him. He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her, lingering over her mouth, and enjoying the way her breathing quickened in response. He relished the obvious power he had over her. That she liked what he did to her, that she responded so quickly, so eagerly, it stroked his ego and fed something in him that he hadn't realized he was hungry for. He'd had scores of the most practiced courtesans, yet this one eclipsed all of them just by the way she was looking at him.

So often he'd had to work to seduce a woman, use tricks and stratagems, flattery, gifts, all the usual things, but Miranda asked for none of that. She just melted under his touch and it was utterly enthralling. He let himself enjoy everything they did to each other and damn the consequences.

* * *

Hours later, he settled himself against her, his head pillowed on her chest. She was panting, hearts still pounding beneath his cheek, and he laughed softly.

"How are my ratings now?" he asked between gasping breaths.

"Magnificent," she sighed out and he chuckled, pleased by the praise. "I take back what I said earlier, if I'd known what I was in for with you, I'd have done this for free," she informed him with another sigh. He pulled himself up her body and looked into her eyes.

"Stay with me," he asked and it wasn't a demand, it was a plea. Her eyes darkened with sorrow and she twined her arms around him.

"I really wish that I could," she told him and he frowned. He could hear the truth in her, she wasn't lying. She wanted to stay.

"Then why leave?" he demanded and she flipped him over, so that she was now lying on top of him. She attacked his mouth, kissing him with a ruthless thoroughness that left him breathless and her hands were moving over him, driving him mad with desire for her.

She straddled him and he found himself letting her take the lead, something that confused him. He was the Master, so how had this short, curvy, ginger-haired girl suddenly gained control?

"Just relax, let me take care of you," she murmured, softly stroking his face with her hand, and he closed his eyes, releasing himself to her. She played his body like a harp, stroking him with fingers and tongue, her mouth describing circles across his body and no one had ever so thoroughly attended to his needs before. He'd had so many lovers, some casual, some more serious, but not one of them had touched him with such sweetness, such tenderness, such … love.

It hit him then, why she was so different from the rest. Why he was letting her do this to him, why he trusted her so easily. Whoever Miranda really was, she loved him. Whether she'd walked into his house already feeling that way, he didn't know, but she cared about him now, and he had no idea what to think about that.

She quickened her pace and he lost the ability to reason, his mind stripped away to its most primal core. All he could do was growl and cry out, grabbing the sheets in hard fists, all of his focus on the things she was doing to him.

He fell over the edge and she looked up at him, her hearts in her eyes for a moment, before the professional curtain was drawn down again.

"You've never told me what my rating is," she pointed out with sultry smile that was already rousing him again.

"You, my dear, are off the scale," he admitted and she grinned, obviously pleased. "Whatever you're being paid, you are certainly worth it."

She crawled up his body to kiss him and the sweetness of her mouth made him groan in need.

"More?" she asked with a wicked look and he nodded mutely. He tugged her into his arms and rolled her over onto her back, his mouth dropping down to her breast. It was her turn to moan now and he decided to reassert his control by driving her into as desperate a state as she'd driven him.

"You must be the finest prostitute in the galaxy," he sighed out and she smiled at the compliment.

"You bring out my best efforts," she returned and while it was a usual line for a prostitute, she delivered it with a sincere look and a tender touch on his face that made him think that she actually meant it.

He drove her mad pushing her to the heights again and again, wearing her out completely before he let her go.

"I should be paying you," she murmured and he laughed in satisfaction, as she curled against him, and began to fall asleep. He held her as her body relaxed into a deep slumber. She was displaying an inexplicable confidence in him, unconcerned that he might harm her as she slept, and he was both shocked and deeply touched by it. When was the last time he'd held a woman who wasn't nervous of him at all? Who curled against him, trusting as a child? Never, he realized.

When he was certain she was no longer conscious, he allowed himself to stroke her hair with a gentle tenderness that frightened him.

She was doing something to him, he was feeling things that he'd thought were alien to him and he wasn't sure that he liked it. He wasn't the sort of man to whom gentleness came naturally. He watched her face as she slept for a while, memorizing each feature and the way her sweat-dampened hair curled around her face, and then slid off of the bed.

Her satchel was lying on the floor next to him and he flipped it open. An image cube he turned in his hands for a moment without activating and then set aside. A medical scanner and a flesh regenerator from Gallifrey, these he examined in greater detail. These were the tools of a trained doctor, not the sort of stuff that tourists would pack. Two days' worth of clothes, none of which had been used, he smirked, personal hygiene products, nothing unusual there. No tickets off world or on, no passport either, so he had to wonder if she had her own TARDIS, if so, then she certainly had no need to work as a prostitute. It was baffling.

A sonic screwdriver of an unfamiliar design on the bottom made him pause. It had been upgraded recently and there was something naggingly familiar about the workmanship. He turned it in his hands until he found something that shouldn't be there.

Scratched into the base of it was the impossible, in his handwriting were notations for the upgrades in his own code system. He'd done the work on it, no one else could have. Yet, he knew that was impossible. He'd never seen this woman or this sonic before in all of his life. He sat there for a long moment feeling shaken and confused. What did it mean? Who the hell _was_ Miranda?


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32 – More Questions than Answers

He set the inexplicable sonic screwdriver down carefully and picked up the image cube, almost afraid to look.

The first picture was of Gallifrey, the suns were rising over the red grass and the silver trees were rosy in the sunrise.

The second picture was of a handsome young man, pale blond hair, brilliant blue eyes, a small smile on his lips, as though he were amused at something that had just been said. His eyes were old, far older than the Master's, yet he knew what he was seeing and it was impossible. He set down the cube and took a deep breath.

He was on his thirteenth body, there could be no more regenerations for him, yet he had been looking at the image of a future self of his. An image that this woman carried with her, when she had almost nothing else.

He'd been right to think that she loved him, but the him she loved was in some future time. He clenched his hands into fists; he did not want to let this woman go. He wanted to do whatever it took to keep her. She belonged to him.

He looked at the image of his future self again and saw things in the eyes of the man he would become that made him relax his death grip on the cube. She'd taken the picture. He knew it without any doubt. The look in the eyes, he couldn't imagine it being inspired by anyone but her. Sometime in the future, he was going to love this woman, he was halfway there already.

The reason that she had to leave him was clear to him now. She was out of her own time and this meeting with him was out of order. Time travel, he thought to himself with disgust.

He leaned his head back against the bed and closed his eyes. He had to let her go, if only so that she could come back to him. He wondered when they would meet, imagined a dozen different scenarios, and smiled in amusement at his own foolish thoughts, a smile that was the duplicate of the one in the cube.

She was stirring, her breathing becoming shallower as she woke and he put everything back and closed up the flap in a hurry.

He slid back into the bed, trying to look as though he'd been there all along. She yawned like a kitten and blinked up at him, a smile rising in her eyes again, her lips curling up to follow.

"How much longer do we have, Miranda?" he asked and she reached out to touch him.

"Twenty-two hours," she answered, her face puzzled, she knew his time sense should have supplied that answer to him.

"Then let's not waste any more time," he told her and she gave him a heated look that nearly stopped his hearts.

"As my master commands," she replied and after that he lost the capacity for speech.

* * *

Twenty-two hours wasn't long enough for him to do everything to her that he wanted to and he found himself growing angry and resentful as time ran out. He took her with more force, nearly brutal in his assault on her, but she matched his anger with her own desperation. He could feel that her own desire to hang onto this time between them was as great as his own and that confused him.

"Why do you look so sad? This is just a job for you, right? A prostitute has to go where the money is, after all." It was a cruel thing to say, especially when he was now quite certain that she wasn't one. After all, she was off to his future self, he presumed, she ought to be happy to go to the younger, more handsome version of himself.

"I don't want you to be alone," she answered, her eyes shadowed, and it felt like knives stabbing into his hearts. He threw his head back and laughed, masking the way her words made him feel. It was nice that his future self could engender such loyalty; he wondered what the secret was and when he'd learn it.

"Great Stars, Miranda, you're far too sentimental. You'll never be good at this job if you let yourself get emotional." The words came out far more gentle than they had been in his head. He had wanted to hurt her to make up for some of what he was feeling, but her eyes on his were tender and filled with a softness that he wanted to sink into.

"I think you've ruined me for this profession," she admitted and her smile was bitterly self-mocking. "You're too hard an act to follow."

"You probably say that to all your Johns," he teased and she forced a smile that never reached her eyes.

"No doubt the next girl you hire will tell better lies," she assured him and there was a quick flash of hurt in her gaze, which she couldn't quite hide. He suddenly felt as though his cruelty to her was unfair. She was here now, giving him all that she could. When she'd seen him in the hallway, she could have walked away, refused him, but she hadn't.

"We still have two hours," he pointed out and kissed her with a desperate passion that made her cling closer, arms and legs wrapped around him, and body instantly ready for him. Damn, but he was going to miss having her in his bed. He hoped that whenever she came into his life it was soon, if he had to wait too long he might really go mad.

* * *

He lay sprawled, naked on the bed, and she stood for a moment, watching him sleep, before she gathered up her satchel. There was so much pain and heartbreak in his future and so many terrible deeds that he would come to deeply regret. She shook her head; there was nothing to be done. She reached under the bed and pulled the Vortex Manipulator from where she'd dropped it and strapped it to her wrist.

"I'll see you again, Koschei, my love," she murmured and then pressed the button.

* * *

In the bed, the Master's head whipped up in shock, his feigned sleep forgotten. His name. She'd known it and had spoken it in a voice filled with such aching longing that he had his answer. He'd known for some time that she wasn't a prostitute, but now he knew what she actually was.

His wife.

How unexpected.

* * *

Susan stumbled forward and Shay caught her in gentle arms, his eyes shadowed with concern. He was patting her all over, checking for injuries and she was glad that she'd healed one or two interesting marks before leaving. That was a conversation for a private moment.

"Are you alright?" he asked and she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly.

"Oh I missed you so much!" she cried; glad to be back where she belonged. His past self had been amazing, but nothing compared to the bond she had with him now.

"Well? Did it work?" her grandfather demanded. "Did you end up in the right universe?"

"Oh yes, right universe, just the wrong time," she grumbled, as Shay detached himself from her and went to adjust the machine.

"How far off were we?" Koschei asked with a frown, looking at the calibrations on the Anchor with his head cocked.

"About three hundred and twenty years," she told him, watching him for a reaction, but he didn't respond. Had he forgotten about her? That hurt a bit. She'd hoped to be just a touch more memorable.

"Did you see the exact date and where you were?" he asked next, still frowning at the device.

"I was in the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe, it was the month of flowers on Gumphas," she answered and Koschei froze. His face blanched and he dropped his screwdriver. He stared up at her in shock.

"Miranda," he breathed out. "I'd made myself forget about that." She blinked in surprise.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"Anyone want to explain that to me?" her grandfather asked, looking between them in confusion.

"I was there, when I was the Master," Koschei answered and then he flushed and looked down at the Anchor. Suddenly the device seemed fascinating.

"Did you manage to avoid him? That could have been a dangerous paradox!" Grandfather was now very confused.

"I didn't _quite_ manage to avoid him," she answered and cleared her throat in a bit of embarrassment.

Grandfather studied her with a cool gaze and then rolled his eyes.

"Tell me you didn't go to bed with him!" he grumbled and Susan shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

"He was wearing a black suit!" she protested. "What was I supposed to do?"

Koschei snorted in amusement, his shoulders shaking as he tried to hide his laughter, and her grandfather stormed out of the room with his hands in the air.

"You two are impossible!" he cried as he left.

Koschei looked up at her and his eyes were full of amusement.

"A black suit, eh?" he enquired. "Is that all it takes?"

"Oh, my love, it takes far less than that. You only have to look at me and I'm completely yours," she admitted and his eyes went hot with desire. "Yeah," she murmured. "That look, right there."

He stood up and pulled her into his arms, kissing her until she was melting into him.

"You really were the finest prostitute in the galaxy," he sighed out and she smiled up at him.

"Only for you," she returned and he lifted her in his arms and kissed her again.

"Let's take the rest of the day off," he suggested and she grinned up at him from under the sweep of her hair. He froze suddenly and was looking at her in amazement.

"What?" she asked puzzled at the sudden mood change.

"That look you just gave me. It's very much like the look you gave me in the Tower, right before we went into each other," he told her.

"Okay. And?"

"It's the same look Miranda gave me way back then. It drove me wild then too." Her lips curled into a sensuous smile.

"So far so good, what's the problem?"

"I'd made myself forget Miranda. After you, well, other women seemed… rather dull," he confessed and she ran a hand down his chest with a smirk. "But the thing that aroused me in the Tower, was that look. When you looked up at me through your hair, I just suddenly found you very attractive. I think my subconscious recalled Miranda and put two and two together." He was watching her with a touch of uneasiness.

"So, you're saying it wasn't a basic paradox, this was a recursive paradox? It was meant to happen because it had already happened?" she asked and he nodded.

"Something has been drawing up together for a very long time."

"You know, I could feel my own existence in that universe."

"You could?"

"Yeah, I was barely seventy years old."

"You mean I was having sex with you, while you were alive somewhere as a child," he commented, squeezing his eyes shut against the mental image.

"Cradle robber," she teased. "Shall I show you how grown up I am now?" she purred and he crushed her against his chest and kissed her breathless.

"Wife, I need you," he sighed out and she gave up any hope of getting food for hours to come.

But she really didn't mind.

* * *

The Doctor jammed his hands into his pockets and strode across the plaza, deep in thought. He'd always kept track of the progress of his old friend's madness. He watched him fighting to hold onto his mind for centuries, only to finally start losing the fight after the Doctor had fled Gallifrey with Susan.

Back then, he'd suspected that his support being withdrawn, even if it hadn't been intentional, was what had pushed the Master over the edge.

But, what if he'd been wrong.

What if it was Susan? What if it had always been Susan? He'd done the math for the jump and there was no way she should have ended up anywhere near where she had. Other things had to be in operation here for it to have gone quite so far wrong. He ran his mind over the entire history of his friendship and rivalry with Koschei, looking for patterns.

"She's the Arkytior," Rand reminded him from the back of his brain and he stilled.

"Of course," he groaned. "How do I keep forgetting that?"

"Because for you, it is an unimportant detail," Rand's mental voice was rather dry and the Doctor found himself smiling.

"So, for some reason, Susan, or at least the Arkytior bits of her decided to take a side trip to see him?" he wondered. "But why?"

"Maybe he needed her," Rand suggested and the implications of that were rather disturbing. Was the power of the Arkytior being used by Susan's subconscious, or perhaps even by the Visionary parts of her mind?

He turned abruptly and headed for Susan's TARDIS. The Matrix was still there and it suddenly occurred to him that he was in desperate need of information and knowledge. Surely someone from the time of the last Arkytior must be around to chat up. He had ignored the issue for hundreds of years, but that was no longer an option. He needed to understand what was going on.

He plunged into the TARDIS and stormed into the Matrix, grabbing the crown from its pedestal with a frown. He thought carefully about what he needed and then jammed it on his head.

"Show me," he demanded and the room around him dissolved.

* * *

The Doctor looked around at the landscape around him. It was Gallifrey, but far back in its past. It looked more like this alternate Gallifrey than it did like his home had. Wind whipped through the Silverleaf trees around him and he realized that he was in the grove outside the city.

"The King approaches, all hail the King," a mocking voice addressed him and he spun on his heel to see a young woman regarding him levelly from a few feet away. She was slender, with long silken blond hair and eyes a deep blue color that made him think of twilight evenings. She was pretty, but that was the least thing about her. She had presence, a strength of mind and soul that was nearly palpable. She nearly shimmered with determination and focus.

"I've never wanted a kingdom to rule," he told her. "I wouldn't take one if it was offered to me. I just want to learn, to know, to explore." He didn't know why he felt a need to justify himself to her, but he knew somehow that her opinion of him mattered.

"Then you are unlike most of your kind, Time Lord," she sighed out and walked past him to look out at the fields of red grass that stretched away from the grove.

"You're not the first to mention that to me," he teased and she looked up at him in surprise and then her lips curled into a small smile. He felt a shock of recognition seeing it, for he knew that smile. "Susan?" he asked and she shook her head.

"I am Aristalandria, I was born many hundreds of thousands of years before your time," she corrected and he nodded.

"But you're the Arkytior, just as my Susan is," he guessed and she nodded.

"I was, when I lived, but that was long ago and far away." Her voice was filled with such sorrow and grief that he felt tears in his own eyes.

"I need to know what I have to do to help Susan. I don't understand some of the things that are happening to her, and to her husband, and I'm scared for them," he admitted and she looked at him for a long time.

"Do you want the power of her?" she asked and he shook his head in negation instantly.

"Omega, no! That's the last thing I want! I just want her to be safe. I want them to be happy. They love each other so much and they've gone through so much, there has to be a way to make things easier for them." He was looking at her, begging her with his eyes to tell him that there was a future for those two.

"They love each other? He is… kind?" she asked and he smiled a trifle wryly.

"Kind? I suppose he is. He's not an easy person to get on with. I mean, he's a good man, a bit arrogant, rather sarcastic, rude, utterly brilliant, and stubborn, a little mad the way that all engineers are, but he loves her so much it's sometimes painful to see it. They get near to each other and it's like seeing two gas giants merging, their energies just swirl together. When they're apart it's like they're incomplete, just waiting for that moment when they are one again." He wasn't sure where his understanding was coming from just then, he suspected it was Rand's more than his own, but it felt very true to him.

"Once, I knew such a bond," Aristalandria sighed out and the grief in her eyes was too much for him to bear and he looked down at the ground. "My own love was ripped away and murdered by Rassilon and not even his memory was preserved in here so that I might have something of him."

"Rassilon's dead. I killed him," the Doctor informed her and his voice was as cold as winter.

"Then you have done me a greater service than any other I could name. I shall tell you what you need to know." Her own voice was equally icy and they looked at each other in perfect understanding.

She began to explain and by the end, the Doctor was sitting on the ground, his mind reeling and his hearts pounding in awe and alarm. He dropped his head into his hands and listened, trying to compass it all, and then finally he stood up and nodded.

"I'll see to it," he told her and leaned down to kiss her gently on the brow. "Sleep well, Aristalandria." He took the crown off with shaking fingers and wanted to cry. So many secrets and he always seemed to be their keeper. It wasn't fair.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33 – Light Touches

The Shadow Proclamation sent the legal packet to them via Judoon, which nearly led to an intergalactic incident when the UNIT soldiers saw giant bipedal rhinoceroses materializing in the plaza.

It was Malcolm and Ellasiira who saved the situation. Oblivious to the tense standoff between the two sides, she just strolled up to the Judoon captain, Malcolm at her heels, and looked up at him in interest.

"Is that my delivery?" she asked and they had handed her the documents in question and then departed. She'd stared at them and then handed them off to the UNIT soldiers in disgust. "This is not my delivery!" she'd grumbled. "Tell me when some big boxes show up, will you?" Then she'd marched off back to her lab, Dr. Taylor trailing her like a terrier on a mission.

* * *

Ted Morton delivered the papers to the Doctor, who was sitting in his office, staring at the walls.

"A bunch of big rhinoceros soldiers brought your mail, Doctor," he announced and the Doctor shook himself and forced a smile.

"The Judoon, they are the Shadow Proclamations version of Marines, Ted. For when you absolutely, positively, have to have it broken today," he quipped and Ted grinned at him, saluted, and left. The Doctor was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice the salute.

* * *

Rose tucked Jenny into her crib with a smile and then stepped out of the bedroom and headed down the hall. In her favorite sitting room, Donna, Martha, Susan, and her mum were sitting and having tea and a chat.

"Well, we have that little problem all sorted, at least," her Mum told the others with a relived sigh.

"Yeah, well, honestly, I think that we could have gotten better concessions out of the Americans than that, but the President wouldn't let me keep after them," Donna complained.

"Now, now, President Jones was right, we went a little light on them and they know it, next time we negotiate, we can remind them of that and get a bit more then," her Mum insisted and Donna thought about it before nodding.

"Jackie Tyler and Donna Noble, Britain's secret weapon," Martha laughed, but Rose couldn't help but think that she wasn't far off. So far no world leader they'd been set at had been able to withstand their combined powers. If pursed lips and head shakes didn't do them in, then the palpable aura of disappointment they were capable of generating did. All by herself, Jackie was a terrifying force of nature, but with Donna standing behind her, arms crossed, and frown engaged to maximum, grown men blanched and caved.

"If Time Lords can't stand against them, then no mere human could," Susan teased with a grin. "I know that I wouldn't ever cross them."

"And quite right too," Jackie agreed. Martha and Susan exchanged looks and then burst into giggles.

"How's your sister doing, Martha?" Rose changed the subject before her Mum could decide she was offended by the laughter.

"Tish loves her job with President Jones," Martha assured her. "She's doing really well there. "My brother, Leo, and his wife had a second daughter. They are calling her Kara," she added. The talk quickly turned to babies and children and all the joys and troubles they provided.

Susan fell silent and looked out the window. Rose noticed the carefully concealed anguish that was hiding underneath Susan's placid surface. She wished that there was something she could do to ease that pain, but she wasn't really sure how she could help.

"Rose was the most adorable baby, all blond and perfect. Tony was ginger from the start, came out with a little mop of hair like a wooly mammoth," Jackie chuckled and Martha and Donna laughed. Susan forced a smile, but Rose noted that it never reached her eyes.

"Susan, I need to get more crisps, would you help?" Rose finally asked, unable to bear the sadness radiating out from Susan for another moment. The brown-eyed Time Lady looked up at her and she seemed to recognize Rose's discomfort, because her emotions were suddenly gone, just sealed away and completely hidden.

It was actually a little uncomfortable; Rose had been coming to rely a little on her empathy to get a sense of the people around her. She was suddenly feeling a little blinded now.

She stood up, Susan following her into the kitchen, and as she went she carefully listened for the other Time Lords. It was a sort of hum in the back of her mind. Usually, she ignored it, her human self not quite able to deal with the idea of having an entire race of people in her head. Today though she was really trying to make the concept of being a part of a telepathic race seem normal to her.

"How could you stand it, when they weren't there in your head? You closed down and it was like I was blinded!" she complained and immediately Susan opened up enough to let a trickle of her presence out. Rose sighed in relief.

"Sorry, Rose, didn't mean to shut you out so completely, I forget sometimes that you aren't used to using your Time Sense to keep track of us," Susan apologized and Rose blinked at her.

"How do you do that?" she asked in surprise, pulling a bag of crisps from the cupboard as Susan fetched a bowl.

"Well, look at me, what do you see?" Susan asked her and Rose set down the bag and turned to really study Susan.

She'd had about a year and a half as a Time Lady and she'd spent some of that time having Malla teach her what she was seeing, but she still felt as though she had barely a child's understanding still. Davian was not quite eight and his grasp of it was better than her own.

Susan, when she stopped and let her Time Sense really look, was an incredibly complex space time event. She was a golden light at the center with lines of time and causality streaming out from her. If Rose let herself stare into the forces that wove through and about the other Time Lords it became harder and harder to see their physical bodies at all. They were essentially energy forms folded into a material shell.

Rose followed the strong golden cord that trailed out of Susan and felt that it was the connection between her and Koschei. She could see the two-way transference of energy between them, the constant back and forth of their selves, one to the other. There were other connections as well, the strong pink cord between Susan and the Doctor, other lighter pink ones that led off to Darginian and to Rose herself. Then there were green cords that connected her to Andred and Romana, then far fainter ones, some a mere shimmering in the air that bound her to the rest of the Time Lords and Ladies still alive, though the ones to her parents pulsed an angry red.

"I see you, you're all like golden and glowy, and then there are these cords leading off of you to other Time Lords, plus there's all this stuff rippling and flowing around you," Rose told her and Susan nodded.

"So even if you couldn't feel Grandfather, emotionally, you could still follow the cord back to him, right?" Susan asked and Rose cocked her head in thought and then nodded. "Well, now look at yourself," she instructed and Rose looked down.

Cords of light flowed out of her and headed off in different directions. A golden cord connected her to the Doctor and, while it wasn't as strong and bright as the one that connected Susan and Koschei, it was still a bright and shining proof of their bond, their love, and it gave her a quiet feeling of joy. Other cords reached out to touch the other Time Lords she had connections to.

"Why don't they touch Mum, or Pete, or Tony?" she asked suddenly and Susan's face fell.

"Because they don't have access to that energy. It's a function of Time Sense, and it's only available when the connection is reciprocal," she explained and her face was filled with remembered sorrow.

"So Romana and James will never have that sort of connection?" Rose asked and Susan nodded.

"I've tried to figure out a better conversion process, a way of jumping a human up to a Time Lord, but honestly, all those millennia of history and we were never really able to do it for our own people, so I don't have a lot of hope," Susan told her with her eyes downcast and her shoulders slumping. "I'm not even positive that all the cloned children will make the leap."

"What will happen to them?"

"They'll be loved by their human parents, have amazing and interesting lives, marry or not, have children, or not, and live out their days like any other person does. It's not so bad being human, you know," Susan teased and Rose grinned at her.

"No, not bad at all," Rose agreed.

* * *

The Doctor read through the papers and tried very hard not to get angry. It was obvious that the Draconians hadn't thought that anyone would protest their actions much. They hadn't covered their tracks very well at all.

The problem though was that the terrorists themselves had done a far better job at hiding themselves. It had been determined by the London Police's Forensic Lab that the second bomb had been on a timer, set to detonate when it was thought there would be plenty of cops and firemen around, not to mention the Time Lords who had responded to the attack on Andred. Susan's escape was a matter of pure luck. Had she been still standing where Andred and Leela had been, she'd have been killed as well and Andred might have died a final death, since he was still in the process of regenerating when the second blast had gone off.

Skimming through what little the British Government and Interpol had gathered on the terrorists was depressing. They were a mix of religious zealots who thought the Earth was given to them by God and aliens were of the Devil and some very highly educated nutters who were quite certain that the Gallifreyans posed a terrible threat to human progress, autonomy, and the environment.

Either way, their grasp on reality seemed tenuous at best.

"How bad is it?" Kate Stewart asked and he looked up to see that she was sitting in the chair across from his desk, looking as though she'd been there for quite some time. He must be in a bad way if he hadn't noticed her come in, he realized.

"The Terrorists might have lost their off-world funding, but they won't stop just because of that. They are 'true believers' and that lot is never stopped by a mere lack of money. The Draconians left a clear paper trail, so they're in serious trouble with the Alliance, which is good, but we still have to deal with the home-grown problem," he told her and she nodded.

"Something else is bothering you though," she informed him, her eyes pinning him to his chair and he sighed.

"Time Lord stuff," he shrugged and tried to downplay it, but she shook her head.

"No such thing anymore," she contradicted him. "We're all in this together." He looked at her and thought about her father and all that they had gone through together and then abruptly nodded.

"Well," he drawled. "You see, my ancestors were unusual even for Time Lords. I can't explain it all in under six hours, but my family breeds these occasional extra special folks. We have access to abilities and powers that other Time Lords don't."

"I see," she answered and leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs, watching him with interest, but no judgment.

"My grand-daughter got the fuzzy end of the genetic lollipop, as it were. She got stuck with the power of the Arkytior, the Rose of Time." He paused, trying to figure out how to explain it. "She's an amazing person, she could re-make the universe over again, but she never would. There were plenty of times in her life when using that power could have saved her a huge amount of pain and suffering, but she refused. She didn't want to be someone who could change fate, alter time, or any of that. She chose to remain who and what she is."

"She _is_ amazing," Kate murmured, her eyes thoughtful. "I can think of very few people who wouldn't be tempted by that sort of power."

"Well, the flip side of that power is that is has the potential to destroy as much as create and Susan loves life. She loves people, flowers, all the many and varied souls who live out there in the Big Black. She would never risk them," he continued and Kate was watching him with a sudden illumination.

"Koschei," she whispered and then looked up at him in understanding. "She'd risk it for him though, wouldn't she?"

"Actually, no, she wouldn't. She wouldn't risk the destruction of life everywhere for anything or anyone." He turned and looked out the window. "However, the Arkytior itself is a sentient force. It becomes linked to the person who has that power, feeling what they feel, caring about what they care about. In its own vast and supremely powerful way, the Arkytior itself now loves Koschei. That power will defend him, whether or not Susan wants it to. I have no idea yet quite what lengths it might go to, but I suspect that there is little it would not do to preserve him now."

"So, we keep Koschei safe at all costs," Kate answered him and he nodded.

"We also cannot tell Susan or him about this. Koschei can't keep anything from her with their bond being so close and she would most likely destroy herself if she thought such a possibility existed," he groaned, scrubbing his face.

"Would she do that?" Kate looked appalled.

"My son informs me that rather than allow the power to be used by our leaders, Susan stabbed herself through the throat with a knife." A bit of information that had torn him in two, he didn't add. Kate winced and then nodded.

"I see," she said again and the Doctor knew that she did see it. There was more of course, but he wasn't ready to discuss that possibility yet. The secrets whispered to him by the last Arkytior were heavy on him and he was still working through them all.

"We do need to discuss the Silurians at some point," he reminded her and she nodded.

"Yes, I have been in contact with the UN's subcommittee on the Homo reptilia resettlement issue," she mentioned and he cocked his head in amusement.

"Oh you humans! A committee for everything!" he clapped his hands in delight. "What have they decided?"

"Well, they have a hundred years to work on the problem and they seemed determined to take just that long," she sighed and he laughed aloud.

"Typical," he chuckled. "But no doubt they will come up with ideas and solutions that I'd never even dreamed of," he told her and she shook her head.

"From what I've seen, Doctor, you are far more 'human' than most of the rest of your kind. Susan too, she's got a lot more 'human' in her attitude than 'Time Lord'," she countered.

"Well, to be honest, none of us are 'typical' Gallifreyans, Kate. After all, if we were, we'd be dead."


	34. Chapter 34

A/N - I realized my math was off. The year that rose and Ten2 land in Pete's world is 2008, not 2009, so I have some serious leeway in the story. YAY! Writing "Gravity" the Ten2/Rose prequel to "Into the Breach" is slowing down "Jiggery". Sorry for the delays.

Chapter 34 – A Rising Hope

Rose cuddled up to her husband and breathed in his scent. Being a Time Lord gave her heightened senses and she was growing used to being able to taste every flavor in her food, or see things more clearly, or hear tiny sounds, but the smell of her husband was something really special now. It was the scent of home, of love, of comfort and warmth.

They were snuggled together on the couch, Jenny sprawled in his lap, watching TV. How Koschei had managed to get them the BBC on Gallifrey, Rose didn't ask anymore, she wasn't sure it was legal and it probably broke several laws of physics. Malla just made irritable grumbling noises when she'd pressed the issue.

"You ever notice how much Catherine Tate looks like Donna?" the Doctor asked and Rose blinked at the TV.

"Really? I can't see the resemblance," she disagreed and they fell silent again, simply content to be together, enjoying the domesticity of the moment.

Jenny stretched and yawned and the Doctor stroked her back, smiling down at her. Rose felt as though there was nothing in the world as wonderful as this moment.

* * *

Romana gasped and looked down at the console with tears starting in her eyes.

"Problem?" James asked and she shook her head, still frowning.

"Not a problem, just an anomaly, is all. Confusing, but if it's real, then truly wonderful." She pointed to the recently installed "Time Lord Detector" that Koschei had wired into her console. She'd been nervous about it at first, but so far it hadn't tried to kill her or take over her TARDIS, so she was trying hard to think better of the Master and accept his reform. Still, she found that she checked it more often than she did any of the other sensors. Just in case.

"An anomaly?" James asked, derailing her train of thought.

"Well, the Lady Professor said she'd saved about twenty of us when we asked her, right?" she muttered and he nodded.

"I wasn't there, darling, but I'll take your word for it," he answered and she smiled at him.

"I'm picking up a clustered signal and that doesn't make any sense to me at all," she informed him and he blinked.

"Clustered?"

"A group of signals, all together, a large group of them," she explained and he stared at her for a long moment.

"How large?"

"Well, probably about thirty or forty, but it's hard to tell, because they are so close together." She looked up at him and their eyes met in wonderment.

"Let's go," he whispered and she punched in the co-ordinates with trembling fingers.

* * *

Martha, Rory, and Harry were helping her with the formulations for the retroviruses, while Maria, Gregory, and Reggie were assisting Arthur as he worked out the next phase of the Brigadier's treatment. The lab was bustling, people laughing, talking and working together with smiles and good-will. The Brigadier was sitting in the arm chair that the Doctor had fetched for him, his wife in a matching one beside him, having tea.

Susan pretended that she didn't see him pour something in his cup that was slightly stronger than brewed leaves. It wouldn't harm him and he looked as though he really needed it just now.

The windows let in the early afternoon light; a gentle beige shade which told Susan that rain was on the horizon.

Terry had taken to using the Torchwood medical facility to do his own work and she was grateful for that. He was courting Lunzi these days and she was even more grateful for that. The less she saw of him, the more likely she was not to murder him.

Looking out the door she saw Ted and Marty, the two UNIT soldiers assigned recently to protect the lab, and felt a little more secure.

Martha bent over the read-out and frowned.

"Susan, is the telomere length supposed to be that long?" she asked and Susan walked over to peer over her shoulder.

"Yes, Time Lords naturally have much longer telomere lengths than humans do, it's one of the reasons we age so much more slowly than humans. In fact, most of my experiments with slowing the ageing process for humans have focused on creating retroviruses that extend telomere lengths as a primary method for forcing the cells to act 'younger'," she commented and Martha nodded at her in comprehension.

"Okay, but what are those actions over there? The bit tagged "DNMT"," she pointed to the screen and Susan smiled.

"That's just maintenance methylation activity, completely routine and totally normal. It's necessary to preserve DNA methylation after every cellular DNA replication cycle. Without the DNA methyltransferase, the replication machinery itself would produce daughter strands that are unmethylated and, over time, would lead to passive demethylation," she rattled off and Martha raised an eyebrow.

"Remember that I am an MD, not a genetic engineer," she pointed out and Susan grinned.

"If I don't program the computer to occasionally induce DNA methyltransferase, then the cells would forget what they were supposed to be. It's like putting the words "End Trans" at the end of a transmission. The cell divides and uses the data needed for cellular DNA replication and then the methylation activity is the "and stop there" part. Otherwise the replication would just keep going forever, okay?" Susan tried to explain it more simply, and Martha nodded.

"Got it. So, the DNMT tag on that line is the keycode for that process?"

"Yes, exactly," Susan confirmed.

"That's all I needed to know," she teased and Susan blushed.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Not to worry," Harry told her from where he'd been standing behind her. "I found the refresher course quite useful." He winked at her and Susan grinned back at the silver haired MD.

"You're an officer and a gentleman, Harry Sullivan," she told him and he laughed.

"Too true," he confirmed. "Now let's discuss the chemical processes here, because you are obviously way ahead of us in this area," he told her and Martha winced as the two of them started discussing things way above her level.

Susan patted her gently and led Harry off to another part of the room as they talked. Martha was brilliant in her own areas of expertise and it wasn't fair to make her feel inadequate in this one, Susan knew. Arthur joined the discussion and they were soon breaking down different processes and debating the best methods of approaching different problems that they all foresaw coming up for them.

It was utterly thrilling for Susan to have two such brilliant people to talk to about this subject. She'd been alone with engineers for far too long.

* * *

Koschei looked down at his hands and tried to ignore the way that they trembled. Today was turning out to be a bad day for him.

He'd woken with nightmares and lain shaking in bed for a long time, his wife holding him tightly, soothing him with kisses and gentle words. He'd clutched her to him, breathing, trying to calm down and fighting to erase the images in his mind.

The people he'd killed, the worlds that had died because of him, they haunted his dreams. He'd spent decades on Traken, he'd come to know Kassia very well. Looking back, he felt as though his corruption of her innocence was on par with what he'd done to Lucy. He had a bad track record with women.

"Shay?" the Doctor's voice called him back from his reverie and he gave his oldest friend a twisted smile.

"Do you remember Kassia?" he asked and the Doctor's eyes darkened in memory.

"Yes, I remember them all, Tremas, Kassia, Nyssa, all of them," he answered.

"Whatever happened to Nyssa? She was with you for a while and then she just vanished," he asked and the Doctor sighed.

"She was a brilliant physician, you know. Rather like Susan in that respect. We ended up on Terminus and she realized that the cure was being mismanaged. People were being sent there to die, when they could have been saved. She stayed behind there, deciding to turn the whole place around, make it a real hospital again. She did it too, brilliant woman," the Doctor smiled, his face filled with a wistful happiness, remembering a success story, Koschei surmised.

"You went back to see her?" he asked and the Doctor's eyes dimmed.

"No. I never go back if I can help it," he answered and his voice was bleak. "I was in a hotel on Farago, I heard two tourists talking about her and her hospital, how well run it was, how successful she'd been in turning it around. That's how I knew."

"You should have checked on her," Koschei chided. He'd watched Nyssa grow up, had many of Tremas' memories of her still in his mind.

"I can't, Shay," his friend answered and he stood and crossed the lab to look out of the window. "I can't watch them age and die, it hurts too damn much. The first time my heart broke is when I left Susan with David. Leaving Gallifrey had been hard, leaving you and my family had hurt, but leaving her…" he stared out the window for a long moment, his face a mask of grief.

"I know the feeling," Shay commiserated and the Doctor gave him a pained smile in return.

"I realized for the first time that I would always have to leave them behind. Susan was the only one who I always came back to, the only one who never aged, but to watch David grow old, to watch her children growing up and ageing, it was horrible. I couldn't watch the rest of them growing old and dying. It was far better to keep them in my mind as they were, forever young, forever vibrant and alive. That way, one day, I could go back and see them again, without having them die in my personal timeline." His face had gone wistful and that grief was there again and Koschei sighed.

"Selfish git," he grumbled and the Doctor spun to look at him in shock. "You abandoned them and never looked back and they all think _I'm_ the bad one."

"That's not fair!"

"Isn't it? Where's Jo Grant these days?" he challenged.

"She left me to get married to some botanist chap," the Doctor shot back.

"Left you? You make it sound like you were dating! She got tired of carrying your screwdriver and got a life! Did you even send her a wedding gift?" he snarked.

"Actually, I did! I gave her a blue gem from Metabilis 3!" he retorted and Koschei blinked in surprise. "Mind you, she had to send it back, because it was evil, but it was the thought that counted!" The man who used to be the Master dropped his head into his hands and groaned aloud.

"Omega! Here I thought I was rubbish at personal relationships! You're worse than I am!"

"Neither of _my_ wives ever tried to kill me though!" the Doctor snapped and Koschei winced in pain at the memory of Lucy Cole's face as she shot him.

"I deserved it. I tortured that poor girl." He scrubbed his head with his hands, eyes filling with tears as he thought about her.

"I'm sorry, Shay, that was cruel of me," the Doctor apologized and he looked up at his old friend with a sigh.

"That's just it, Doctor, you are cruel. You don't mean to be, you try to be kind, but you hurt people without even realizing it."

The Doctor sank down against the wall until he was sitting on the floor next to Koschei.

"Yeah, I know." There was a long uncomfortable silence between them as they both tested the depths of their guilt. It was like probing a wound to see how bad it hurts, Koschei thought to himself.

"You're my best friend, I love you like a brother, you know," he finally admitted and the Doctor nodded.

"Yeah, same here, Shay."

So, there it was, out in the open at long last.

"You're still a bastard though," Shay added.

"Yup," the Doctor answered, popping the 'p' with a grin. "So are you."

"Well, as long as that's clear." Koschei got up and extended a hand to his friend, hauling him to his feet. They grinned ruefully at each other for a brief moment and then they went back to work. They had so much still to do.

They had miles to go before they could rest.

* * *

Romana and James crept into the ship, and their breath frosted in the air. The whole planet was a frozen waste without a trace of technology or higher life anywhere on it.

The Void Ship was filled with cryo coffins and it took Romana a moment to understand why they looked so strange to her.

"They're child-sized," she whispered and ran to the nearest one. She rubbed at the glass window and peered in to see a dark-haired girl, of about five years old, frozen inside of it.

"They're children, all of them!" James cried, running back and forth between them.

"War orphans," Romana gasped out. "I remember someone saying something about how the Lady Professor was taking in war orphans! I never thought too much about it, I had so much else to worry about." She looked around and her hearts were bursting with joy and sorrow mingled together.

"She must have been an amazing woman," James murmured and Romana nodded, tears flowing down her face.

"If I ever become even half as good, as incredible, as thoughtful, generous, selfless, and wonderful and she was, I'll be happy." Romana told him and James wrapped his arms around her, kissing her tears away and stroking her back.

"You already are incredible," he assured her and she buried her face in his shirt.

"Not as incredible as you are," she replied and they stood there, twined around each other for long moments before they separated.

"Okay, so how do we get them back to Gallifrey?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Start towing!" she laughed and activated the float controls on the nearest cryo-freezer. "I think it would be better to wake them up somewhere warm and safe, don't you?"

"Agreed!" James nodded. "I also don't think that having this many kids running amuck in the TARDIS would be a good idea at all!"

"My thoughts exactly," she confessed and with a laugh, they began floating the small coffin shaped boxes out of the quiescent Void Ship and across the frozen snow to Romana's TARDIS.

"So, what are we going to do with thirty-five Gallifreyan children?" James asked later and Romana gave him an utterly wicked smile.

"Not our problem! We'll leave them with the Doctor and then flee for our lives!" she laughed and he shook his head.

"You are a very bad woman, Romana," he answered with a solemn tone, but twinkling eyes.

"Yes, yes, I am," she agreed.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35 – The Children of Time

Rose rested her hand on the cryo-coffin and tried not to cry, or hyperventilate. Thirty-five children saved from the fires of Gallifrey, preserved against all odds and left for them, another amazing gift from the Doctor's Mum. A woman who was still capable of surprising and delighting them, years after her death.

The sky was a soft peach, the suns hovering above them, so much smaller than Earth's one sun appeared in the sky, but together providing just as much heat and light. The wind was blowing softly through the rebuilt city, birds sang, insects buzzed, and Shobogans chattered and scampered through the crowd. The multi-hued tiles beneath her feet, dusty, muddy, but still beautiful felt like a metaphor to her just then; no matter how much you dumped on her people, human and Time Lord alike, they still shone through.

The metal boxes were all laid out in the Plaza and the people clustered around them, Time Lords and humans alike, were staring at them in a sort of awe.

"They're all so young! Not one over age eight," Kate Stewart commented.

"At age eight our children were sent to the Academy," the Doctor explained. "Mum could only save the ones that were still living with her at the time."

"What are we going to do with them all?" Koschei asked, running a hand through his hair.

"Raise them," Susan answered him. She crossed her arms and looked at the clustered soldiers and agents speculatively. "We'll take them up the mountain and get them sorted. They've been living in the other version of that house for some time, so it will be a familiar environment. After they've gotten acclimated, we'll see about placing them with families. I still have three hundred volunteer families that asked for babies to be adopted, I'll find out how many would be willing to take older children as well. But all that will have to wait until we've sorted through their telepathic sensitivity," she reminded them and the Doctor nodded.

"Right, let's Trans Mat the lot of them up to the house and then start thawing them out," he sighed, scrubbing at his hair with his fingers.

"Romana fled the scene of the crime rather quickly," Koschei commented and Susan grinned at him.

"She's a lot smarter than I am," Susan joked and Rose looked at her in surprise.

"Aren't you happy?" she asked and Susan looked at her with a wry expression.

"I am happier than I could tell you, Rose, but thirty-five traumatized war orphans is going to be more work than you can possibly imagine," she sighed. "I've done this before, you know, I took in war orphans after the Dalek invasion, I've sat up nights with children who couldn't sleep without nightmares, dealt with kids too traumatized to talk, ones who rocked back and forth endlessly, or who were always angry, lashing out, breaking things and screaming at us. This won't be easy and we don't have a decent therapist for telepaths."

"I didn't know you had done that," Rose said with wide eyes and Susan turned away, looking out over the city, hiding her expression.

"In a way, I didn't. That whole future timeline collapsed during the War," she admitted and both the Doctor and Shay gasped. "When the Daleks were defeated, the future where they conquered Earth vanished."

"Then David…" the Doctor murmured.

"Never met me," she answered and Rose could feel the waves of pain coming off of her. She stepped up and hugged Susan, who wrapped an arm around her. "He married someone else, had five kids, twelve grandkids, and died at a very much older age, happy and surrounded by his family."

Koschei's emotions went through a wide series of fluctuations, from sorrow, to jealousy, to anger, to compassion, while the Doctor's feelings were just mournful, Rose was nearly overwhelmed by the intensity of all the moods around her, but Malla gently shifted her shields around to protect her.

"How do you know?" the Doctor asked.

"When I felt that timeline collapse, I checked the records. It was all there." Her voice was bleak and Koschei stepped up to lay a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he told her and Susan just shook her head.

"He had a better life without me than he did with me. It hurts, but I'm also glad that he got the future he deserved." It was an incredibly generous statement, Rose thought, and wondered about the selflessness of the Time Lords she had met. Malla gave her so much, the Doctor saved the universe all the time without gratitude or pay, Susan was willing to give up her past for someone else's future, and it was humbling.

Susan released Rose and stepped into her husband's arms, Koschei holding her possessively against him.

"Even if you would have had a better life with some other bloke, I'd still stab them through the eye and take you back," he grumbled and Rose grinned, feeling far less humbled now and Susan laughed.

"My poet," she snarked and he just crushed her tightly to his chest, like a toddler with a favorite stuffed toy. Rose would have teased Shay about it, but he looked rather shaken and Susan didn't look as though she minded, in fact, she was holding on to him rather firmly herself. It occurred to Rose that they had lived through a lot of timeline collapses, probably terrified that one could happen where they never met, never fell into each other, and never became joined. She shivered just thinking about a timeline where she had never met the Doctor.

His fingers slipped into hers and looking up at her own husband, she could see her fears mirrored in him.

"Well, we might not have therapists and psychiatrists who are trained to deal with telepaths, but we do have ones who are trained to deal with children who have gone through traumatic experiences," Kate interrupted and Susan nodded at her.

"That will help, of course," Susan affirmed and the conversation turned back to helping the children.

* * *

Andred was pacing and Leela was watching him through her lashes, trying not to let him know how closely she was observing him. The light was fading into afternoon and the little round house that they'd settled into was gilded by it. The interior walls were Andred's favorite reds and oranges, but the furniture was all things that Leela had bought on Earth for them. They'd sold the flat in London and moved full time to Gallifrey and half their possessions were still in boxes. She kept meaning to get around to unpacking, but there was always so much to do in a day. Now, it looked like she really needed to get moving on that.

She couldn't have children with Andred that had always been understood. He'd never spoken of a desire for a child, in all the long years that they'd been together; he'd been silent on the subject. But, she knew. She'd always known. His silence had spoken volumes to her.

"We should adopt some of those children, Andred," she suggested and he stopped his pacing and looked at her, his face cautiously blank.

"Do you think so?" he asked, as if his whole being wasn't violently yearning for that very thing.

"I do," she affirmed and he nodded his agreement.

"Very well then," he muttered. "I'll talk to the Doctor then, shall I?"

"An excellent idea," she confirmed, hiding her smile as he practically bolted from the room.

* * *

Darginian held the little girl as she cried in his arms, moving gently through her thoughts healing what he could. He found it ironic that he was utilizing the same skills he'd learned to rip secrets from unwilling minds to try to repair this child's traumas.

"Evy, are you hungry?" he asked her gently and she nodded. Hedia picked the little girl up and carried her off to the kitchen, black curls resting on her strong shoulders. Nearby, Koschei leaned against the wall, watching them all, while remaining as inconspicuous as possible. It was unlikely that any of the children would know the Master on sight, but the possibility couldn't be ruled out, so he stayed quiet and observed.

Dar turned to the next coffin and with a sigh began the unfreezing protocols.

There was a boy inside, about seven Dar thought, with reddish-blond hair and freckles across tanned skin. Dar opened the lid, once the lights all turned blue for safety, and gently lifted the child out. He held the chilled little body against him, rubbing his arms to help him warm up and watched the boy slowly waking up.

"Mum?" he whispered and then, looking around, his face fell. Dar could feel him reaching for that place in his mind where his mother used to reside and finding emptiness. The boy burst into tears and Dar rocked him gently, making soothing sounds as he did so.

"I'm Dar," he told the boy and huge green eyes looked up at him, red rimmed and distraught. "You're at the Doctor's house and we're going to take care of you. The War is over and you're safe now." It was the fourth time he'd given this speech and he'd heard the Doctor, Susan, Evarian, and Andred reciting their variations on the same theme.

"Take care of me?" the boy growled, face creasing with anger. "I can take care of myself and Rill without any help from you!" He pulled violently away from Dar and began racing amongst the coffins. "Rill!" he cried and looked frantic until he found the right one and started yanking on the lid.

"Stop!" Susan shouted and the boy froze. Dar was about to protest her harsh tone, but she continued. "Don't just flail, think!" she commanded and he calmed instantly, nodding. Susan walked over to the cryo chamber. "What's the proper sequence?" she asked, her voice more gentle, but still that of a doctor or teacher, rather than a friend, and he took a deep breath.

"Check the vitals, trigger the revival, open the case, remove the patient, and apply warmth," he recited, like he was at school answering a quiz and she nodded at him.

"Proceed," she told him, waving him back towards the cryo-coffin, but standing over him to observe. He knelt down and checked the vitals, then began activating the revival.

"How long should it take? Is he okay?" the boy asked and Susan knelt beside him, pulling out her scanner and running it over the case.

"He's fine and thawing normally," she assured him and showed him the readings.

Dar was watching her with something like awe. The whole room was focused on the boy and Susan, watching as he relaxed into trust with her as she guided him through the process of thawing the other child out with cool precision. It belatedly occurred to Dar that the boy had probably had a surfeit of pity by now, what he'd needed was what Susan was giving him, a sense of control over his life, a feeling that he was doing something.

Dar looked over at Koschei and saw something in his eyes he hadn't expected. Regret. He was looking at Susan as though he was only now really seeing her. Dar took a moment to wonder why he had never seen Susan with a child before, when she was so obviously great with them. It was almost as though she had been avoiding being around kids. She rarely babysat Jenny, or spent time with Eddie and Matilda, or Davian and Tony.

The muted beep of the defrost cycle ending distracted him. Susan helped the boy open the lid and lifted a smaller, younger boy with the same hair and freckles from the coffin. She laid him in his older brother's lap and ran her scanner over him again.

"He's good. What's your name?" she asked, as though she was completely indifferent to the answer and the boy eyed her with some suspicion before answering.

"Myrdin, son of Tomas and Johanna, of the Prydonians," he answered with all the dignity of an adult.

"Susanatrevalar, daughter of Evarianrestankalinder, also a Prydonian," she replied, and her stance and tone was truly that of a Princess. Myrdin straightened and tried to look more respectful, obviously a bit abashed by her exalted birth and his own temerity in being rude to her. Dar noted how she left her mother's name off of her introduction. She would probably never forgive that woman for trying to kill her husband and that suited Dar just fine.

The younger boy stirred and looked up at his brother, before dissolving into messy tears and clinging to his sibling with desperate grief.

"Rill, Rillmar, shush, it's okay," Myrdin soothed and Susan waved Dar forward.

"Captain, could you take them to the kitchens, they must be hungry," she requested and he rose and bowed to her.

"My lady," he answered and caught the wink she gave him with a straight face. "I obey." He ushered the now chastened Myrdin and his limpet of a younger brother out of the room.

"Rill's only two," Myrdin offered. "Do you think her Ladyship was offended by him?"

"Unlikely. Lady Susan is a doctor, she deals with all sorts of traumas," he reassured the nervous boy. "She won't be offended by a two-year-old's tears."

The seven year old stopped and looked out the window at the mountain and the city below them and shivered.

"I saw it being bombed," he whispered.

"That was a different universe, Myrdin, in this universe, there was no Time War." The boy looked up at him in suspicion, but Captain Darginian of the CIA was looking back at him, and he simply nodded his understanding. Susan had shown him the best way to handle the boy just then and he was quite practiced in dealing with people who needed to be given orders. "Now, her Ladyship said to feed you, so time to eat." Myrdin nodded and they went down to the kitchen with no further problems.

* * *

Koschei was watching his wife as she calmed these shaky, fragile souls with consummate ease. She seemed to sense what each one needed, by turns gentle and soothing, then sharp and dictatorial, turning to calm, or empathetic, or emotional, depending on what that child needed just then. When she'd said that this was going to be a lot of work, he'd only vaguely grasped the scope of what was ahead of them. The cacophony of misery, despair, sorrow, anger, and grief, that was raging through the children was sufficient for him to throw up his walls and retreat behind them.

Once all of the children were defrosted, comforted, and sent to eat, Susan suddenly sank into a chair and burst into tears. Shay was across the room in a heartbeat to hold her, kneeling on the floor in front of her chair. He opened himself to her and realized that she had never closed herself off to any of the children. She'd taken it all into herself.

"So much pain, oh Susan, I never imagined," Rose wept and Shay turned his head to see her crying on the Doctor's shoulder. His old friend's face was wet with tears as well. They had all stayed open. He closed his eyes, feeling a burst of shame at his own retreat.

"They will need a lot of help," the Doctor sighed and Susan nodded against Shay's shoulder.

"My mother's healing will have to be postponed, we're going to need K'anpo," she grumbled and he could see how much anger she still felt for Naomilliar. He was finding that while he was wary of the woman, he didn't hate her. Maybe so many people had tried to kill him over the centuries that he was immune to it, or maybe the poor woman's madness just made it easier to let his anger go, he wasn't sure.

"Your mother is probably as healed by now as K'anpo can make her," the Doctor admitted and he looked out the windows, his face sad and his thoughts distant.

"You can't cure a billion years of in-bred snobbery in a month or two," Shay commented, seeing the humor in the situation, and after checking to make sure Evarian was still in the kitchen.

"You can if you shoot her enough times," his wife whispered to him and he kissed her to hide how he was fighting not to laugh. He was so glad that he'd married a woman who was undaunted by his own violent tendencies, and unafraid to express her own. Still, it was time to deal with some of this.

"It's over now, let it go," he murmured and she looked at him in shock. He could feel the Doctor's eyes on him as well as they talked, interested in where he was taking this.

"She tried to kill you!" Susan protested.

"It's a family pastime," he teased and the Doctor grimaced at him with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. "Well, maybe more like a hobby," he conceded.


	36. Chapter 36

A/N - So this is the last chapter. It's short, more of an epilogue than a chapter, but the story just wrapped itself up and there wasn't anything more to say about this part of their lives. Over 100,000 words though, you all ought not to mind too much. LOL I don't know if I will write more of their future just yet. I need to finish up Gravity and the re-write for Susan's War (now with more Darginian and more Doctor - LOL) But I doubt these characters will leave me alone for long, so expect another story eventually. Thank you all for being amazing and reviewing me with such generosity and enthusiasm.

Chapter 36 – Moving On

"Oi," the Doctor retorted. "Killing you wasn't a pastime or a hobby! You know, that really hurts, Shay!"

"It did actually, several times," he shot back, his lips curled up in a smile and the Doctor shuffled his feet a bit in shame, though his sense of humor was starting to peek back through again. Evarian walked back into the room then and looked back and forth between them, confused by the tension between them.

"You did me in as well, you know," his old friend pointed out and Koschei was reminded of the Radio Telescope and Logopolis, his biggest mistake and the source of his greatest sense of guilt and failure. He nodded.

"That's why this all needs to stop," Koschei insisted, looking up at Susan. "If we are going to build a new Gallifrey, then all the old crap has to go. All the old hatreds, all the old bitterness, it has to go, or it will poison everything we're trying to build," he pleaded with her, watching her stubborn jaw setting into belligerence. "You have to let go of this anger and hatred you have for your mother, it's not helping you get over your past and it could ruin the future."

"He's right and you know it, daughter," Evarian chimed in and Susan's head whipped around in shock. Her father was looking at Shay with warm approval, which was nearly enough to make him keel over from shock on its own, but the Doctor was also looking at them all with a small smile on his face.

"You're agreeing with him?" Susan asked and her own shock was palpable.

"Yes, and look, the suns haven't gone nova or anything," Evarian joked and suddenly Shay could see the little boy he used to be shining behind his eyes again. He grinned at him, suddenly remembering playing endless games of Pico with little Ev, back before the madness had completely claimed him. Evarian had been so different lately that it was easy to forget that he was the same person as that funny little boy.

Susan barked a surprised little laugh.

"Who are you and what have you done with my father?" she accused, a small smile tugging her lips.

"It's amazing how being dumped on your head a few times can knock some sense into you," Evarian sighed and they all chuckled at that, as not a soul in that room hadn't had a few tumbles over their own stupidity.

"Look, I'm not saying to press your mother to your bosom or anything, just let go of all the anger. Firstly, it's not worth putting the energy into and secondly, she's not sane. If you can forgive me for everything I did while _I_ was a bloody lunatic, then you can forgive her for one action taken under extreme mental stress, all right?" he pressed and she was looking at him, her face rueful and her jaw unclenching.

"You make an excellent point, damn it," she sighed. She looked at her father with a sigh. "I suppose I should start with accepting your previous apology and trying to see that you might have changed, just a bit, since I was eight years old," she grumbled, the corner of her mouth twisting up, though he could feel that it was almost against her will. He was catching the edges of her mental battle against her own righteous rage. Letting go of her anger was probably as hard for her as it had been for him, they both had so damn much to be angry about, after all.

"I don't expect you to forgive me anytime soon, Susan. You've been civil to me, which is more than I really deserve at this point. I know that I have a long way to go before I am the sort of person who even deserves your forgiveness. I'm not even sure that I can forgive myself right now. I've been an unmitigated arse for seven hundred years, it might take a while to get out of the habit of it," Evarian admitted with bitter regret.

"Oh, tell me about it," Koschei groaned dramatically. "Try getting out of the habit of thinking of ways to take over planets!" The others were looking at him with alarm, though Susan's eyes were twinkling in amusement. "It's not easy getting over being a mad villain. I used to have staff, doomsday weapons, brilliant schemes, and minions too! It wasn't all shooting people and demanding unconditional surrender, you know! I had to learn how to properly monologue, how to create traps for the Doctor, that he could escape from with a bit of ingenuity, and make it all interesting for him!" he informed them and noted that Susan seemed to be the only one who saw the humor.

"Oh Shay, that was so sweet of you to see that Grandfather never got bored," she answered, her eyes merry.

"See, you're the only one who truly understands," he responded with a grin and the Doctor laughed, getting the joke finally. Rose blinked and then slowly started to smile as well.

"Really, quite considerate of you, old friend," the Doctor conceded. "Especially when I was stuck on Earth, you made the whole thing far more bearable."

"You're quite welcome, old chap," he returned with a gracious bow.

"I'll assume that the message there is that if you can turn your life around, it ought to be easy for me, whose sins are so much lighter?" Evarian asked.

"Your sins are not lighter than mine, Ev," Koschei contradicted, but using the childhood nickname to gentle his words. "I was under the control of others, with little choice in what I became. You chose to betray your own child and you abandoned her to those monsters." He had his own anger about what Evarian had done, after all, but he held tight to his emotions, watching as the younger man winced. "We're all trying to be better people. We've been given a second chance, a whole new universe, where our pasts are wiped clean. If we can't make better choices this time around then we don't deserve forgiveness. Use what we've been given and let's just make those kids' lives better than ours were." He ran out of words abruptly, feeling emotionally drained, and Susan stood up and leaned into him, her head on his shoulder, her arms about his waist.

"Sounds like a plan," the Doctor murmured and Shay saw that deep pride in his friend's eyes. Embarrassed suddenly, he buried his face in his wife's hair.

"I consent and give," Evarian said and this time around his voice was proud and happy. Shay looked up in surprise and saw the Doctor smiling at his son, Rose grinning beside him and somehow things seemed better all at once.

Maybe the future would be easier for all of them. This tentative reconciliation was certainly a good beginning and more than he'd ever hoped for.

"Well family, back to work," the Doctor announced and clapped his hands together. "Things to do, planet to rebuild, children to take care of. Allons-y!" he shouted and they all raced from the room laughing.

The future awaited.


End file.
